Jesus and anxiety
Jesus understood that we all worry. We all have fears and we all get scared.
Fight or flight Is part of our evolutionary history. Fear and anxiety are useful to a degree. They give us information, creating a kind of “radar” warning system where we have to look and decide is it a real threat or imagined? My older brother loves to worry; and he gets paid to do it(!?), working for computer security systems.
But Jesus also understood the limits of the usefulness of anxiety and worry. He wonders if by our worrying we can change our lives in any real way? In a whole address about our core convictions, about where our attention is centered and the quality of our inner life starting in chapter 5 of Matthew and continuing through chapter 7, Jesus invites us to learn from the natural world and tend to our interior life.
He asks us to give attention to birds and plants as a means of changing our inner relationship with God, moving from trapped anxiety to spacious trust. He tells his disciples, learners of his way to look at the birds of the air and consider the lilies of the field.
The word he uses for “look” means to observe fixedly, to gaze upon, spending time with, giving mindshare for, turning the eye of your heart towards. The word for “consider” means to learn thoroughly by, to examine carefully, and to consider well.
For most of us, ‘looking’ and ‘considering’ these days takes about one second. But Jesus says one of the antidotes to our anxiety is found in spending some real time observing and letting your inner self be instructed and taught by birds and flowers who express little to no anxiety in their existence.They have what they need, and they are beautiful just as they are. What is the usual amount of time you need to learn something? Something as important as this?
I’ve struggled with anxiety at times in my life, especially in times like this one where there is a lot of transition going on. There was a time in my life when anxiety was winning out over living peaceably, living caringly.
Learning to meditate and allowing my attention to rest upon one passage of scripture for 20 minutes, e.g. “he makes me lie down in green pastures” (Psalm 23:2) or learning simply to gaze upon creation; taking time to let the pace of my soul match the pace of the growth of a flower or a tree; trained my inner self to trust the slower, deeper, peaceful actions of the soul (always taking place in us already). Learning to observe the anxious patterns of the mind (our inner hamsters running on wheels), but not being overtaken by them is a fruit of the Spirit. Change your relationship with anxiety over time. Let it have its say, but you can decide over time who has the the greater say and sway. Will you let Jesus sit on the throne of your heart, speaking “Peace” to you? Or will you let anxiety rule? Let love win and reign over yo
ur heart and your inner kingdom.
If you work at it just a bit day by day (go on a really slow walk through a forest today or pace your walk on our labyrinth), you can trade out the anxiety for trust: trust that you are amazing already, just as you are—as Jesus said ‘not even Solomon was as amazing as one of these lilies...and how much more has God given you!?’ One session with a tree—pretty much anyone will do—will keep giving back to you later.
Trust that things will be okay, as Jesus essentially said, ‘the birds have enough, even though they don’t strategize about their future all the time’. ‘Trust and give your energy to God’s vision of a just and fair world and you will have what is needed.’ (Matt 6:23) Give your attention to today alone. Deal with what is in front of you now and get into the flow of God’s ongoing work! Joining with the pace of young children can be really instructive.
Give yourself some time to ‘forest-bathe’ this week. Be like a tree planted by a stream of living water (Psalm 1:1b). Go observe the birds and take their effortlessness inside of you. Let your soul fly around just like theirs. Imagine with your mind’s eye what they are seeing. ‘Feel’ what it’s like to trust the air to hold you up. Spread out your arms like wings. Spend time gazing upon a flower or a tree, converting sunlight to energy, absorbing water and nutrients, even sending out and receiving messages from the other trees, and trust that you are cared for, created wonderfully and have good things to contribute. Imagine being an Ent or Entwife for a while, as in the stories of Tolkien! Look at life from the perspective of a Sequoia or a Bristlecone Pine.
Why spend too much time worrying? Change up your pattern, and learn from what’s already right around you. It takes practice but the lilies and the birds will become teachers for you like they were for Jesus and they have become so for me and for many others. The whole creation speaks eternal truths at a pace all its own. You just have to give yourself over to what the creation is saying. Worry a little, but realize it’s limitations. Put worry in its place as an informer. Learn and learn again from what’s before you. You know it already, you’ve just forgotten what’s deep inside you, a river of creation, that flows smoothly into eternal life. Be with your God who loves you completely in Christ.
In Christ’s Peace and Way of Learning to Live Abundantly,
,
Jon+
The Rev. Jon Strand, Rector
