Be Stirred, Not Shaken

“Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you.  Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established” ~ Prov. 4:25-26

A while back, I had the chance to spend a few days sailing off the coast of Sweden.  It was an idyllic off-the-grid weekend, and we had the opportunity to act as first mates to the boat’s captain, Patrik.

The first time I took my turn at the wheel, he gave me a point far out on the horizon to aim for (a tiny white speck that ended up being a lighthouse) and then sat back to chill.  I steered for a while, but increasingly found myself staring intently at the small GPS screen, which had two lines—the one he’d charted and the one we were currently on.

I was laser-focused, trying to keep our direction completely aligned with the course he had charted, making tiny adjustments, struggling to turn the right way and guess how the boat would react to the waves and wind.  The result was me zig-zagging through the water rather than smooth, straight sailing.  When he realized what I was doing, he corrected me.

“Don’t look down, look at the horizon.  That point I gave you out there, that is your goal—navigate by that.  Yes, look down every so often to check for rocks and obstacles, but down there shouldn’t be your focus.”

Perils while navigating this life

Why does this story stick with me, even a few years later?

First, it immediately brought to mind the statement in Hebrews 11 about how the faithful of God through the ages were focused on the promises they saw “afar off,” remaining intent on that vision of the future no matter what threatened them in the present.

Secondly, it made me consider the needs and impact of the immediate vs. the eternal, and how we should be balancing the two while navigating this life.  Make no mistake, we’re meant to actually live our time on this earth, which means we do have to give attention to “right now”.

But it’s also easy to get caught up in the daily grind, with all the negativity, what’s going wrong (or right), not understanding the direction of things or why things happen.  And if we spend too much time thinking about the immediate, it can cause us—ultimately—to lose sight of the eternal.  We’ll zig-zag through life, wasting energy and ending up slowly but surely off-course.

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Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. ~ Swedish proverb

Worry.  Anxiety.  There are a lot of different words that can describe these types of feelings.  I tend to differentiate in that worries are specific—a presentation at work going poorly, a friend being offended by what I said—while I think of anxiety as a more generalized feeling of dread or fear.  That’s not necessarily scientific, just how my brain tends to separate them.  Personally, I’m more prone to the latter.  And while I wouldn’t consider myself a worrier, I do struggle with this on occasion—pretty much everyone does at some point.

There is a famous quote that says, “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”  Intuitively we know that being anxious all the time isn’t healthy, and yet often it seems like we can’t help ourselves.

I thought it would be worth digging into the topics of worry and anxiety in the bible, to see how we should approach them—are we dealing with a true innate personality trait, or something we can and should overcome?  And then we’ll dive into some practical ways to apply this in our lives.

Read next:  Eyes on the Horizon: Tips For Navigating This Life

What does the bible say about worry and anxiety?

Actually, quite a lot.

Here are a handful of verses that get right to the heart of the bible’s take on worry and anxiety:

• “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” (Prov. 12:25)
• “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul” (Ps. 94:19)
• “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matt. 6:25-34)
• “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27)
• “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7)
• “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved [shaken]” (Ps. 55:22)
• “And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her’” (Luke 10:41-42)
• “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Ps. 34:4)
• “For what has man for all his labor, and for the anxious striving for which they labor under the sun?” (Eccl. 2:22; NIV)
• “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties” (Ps. 139:23, NIV)

And these don’t even count the 100 or so times that we are commanded to “be not afraid” or “fear not”.   God clearly sees these topics as relevant to His people and worth addressing.

Read next:  Fear & Love Can’t Coexist (Musings on Faith)

How does worry affect us?

The word typically translated as worry or anxious in the New Testament is merimnao (G3309), and it simply means “to be anxious about”.  It’s translated “worry” in the New King James mostly, while the King James tends to prefer “take no thought for” or “do not care for”.  This word is what’s used in some of the more well-known verses on this subject, such as Matthew 6 and Philippians 4.  Let’s dig into that (lengthy) passage in Matthew for starters:

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“For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined…we went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment [abundance]” (Ps. 66:10-12)

There are many verses about God testing us and allowing us to go through trials.  Obviously in some cases, trials are of our own making, through poor decisions or sins.  But in many other cases, they seem to come out of nowhere, and it’s normal for us to wonder why, and what God’s intention is in allowing the trials.  Is it because He’s angry and wants to punish us?

Of course not.  God’s ultimate purpose is to make us into strong, useful instruments (James 1:2-3, I Pet. 1:6-7).  He has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the strong and wise, and so that those chosen don’t think it’s because of their own amazing capabilities (I Cor. 9:27-28).  But just because he selects us when we’re weak doesn’t mean we’re meant to stay that way.  Myriad verses make it clear that God is tearing us down and remaking us in His image (Rom. 12:2, Eph. 4:24).

In Acts we read where Jesus told Ananias through a vision that Saul (Paul) would be “a chosen instrument (or vessel)” of His plan (Acts 9:15).  This is the same word used when Paul tells the Romans that the potter has “power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor” (Rom. 9:21).  So how does God make us into the strong instrument He is looking for?

A while back I read an article from a modern-day blacksmith talking about his craft, and for whatever reason, on that particular day the biblical analogies just jumped off the page at me and I had to dig further.

Removing impurities in the midst of fire

The first thing the blacksmith does is take a piece of metal and heat it in the fire until it’s almost translucent.  Or he might melt the metal down entirely to pour into a mold.  Both of these processes make the metal workable, but also illuminate the metal’s impurities or deficiencies.

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Some years ago, I read a book that had a chapter specifically devoted to pain.  I don’t recall the chapter heading, but if I had to guess, it would be something like, “The Blessing of Pain”.  The premise was essentially that pain was a good thing, because without it the body wouldn’t know that there was a problem, or that there was something that it shouldn’t be doing.

In that chapter, there were a few pages that addressed leprosy, because as it turns out, leprosy is an excellent illustration of why pain can be a blessing.  The disease’s physical ramifications were discussed, along with experiences from leper colonies (yes, they still exist, although they’re a foreign concept to us “first-worlders”) and observations from those in the medical field who have devoted their lives to pursuing a cure.

The observations about this disease frankly left me staring open-mouthed at the book while I mentally connected the physical with the spiritual.  I began to gain an understanding of why the issue of leprosy was addressed in scripture, which I’ll get to in a bit.

Leprosy is a topic that really isn’t on our radar screens.  For the most part, it doesn’t impact any of us.  We all know someone—close to us or not—with a serious disease:  cancer, diabetes, cardiac problems, dementia, etc.  Because of this, we have a sense of the seriousness and impact these have one people’s day-to-day lives.

I don’t personally know anyone with the physical disease of leprosy.  Not one person.  And I doubt that most people do.  That’s why the topic is not on our radar—it isn’t visible in our lives.  But scripture actually gives this disease a fair amount of attention.  In the Bible, we can find the word leprosy in the bible upwards of 40 times, depending on which translation you’re using.  Leviticus 13 and 14 is a major section that deals with this disease, a part of the “cleanliness” laws.  These chapters are somewhat technical and tedious, and because of that are not my favorite section of the Bible to read.  What they essentially cover are the identification of the disease, when to quarantine, and the remediation of the person/clothing/house.

So what are we to get from this?  In recent years I feel that I’m getting a glimmer of why this subject is covered so heavily in God’s word.

“…Written for our example…”

Although Paul made the statement in 1 Corinthians 10 specifically about the exodus from Egypt, we can be sure that this concept of scriptures being “written for our example” applies to the rest of the Old Testament scrolls.  Paul also described the purpose of the Old Testament scrolls, saying, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).

So what can we learn about leprosy, and especially how it can apply to us in a spiritual sense?  Well, here’s what I have learned…

The physical impact of leprosy

Let’s start with some of the characteristics of the physical disease.  As we go through these, you’re free to get out ahead and start thinking of the spiritual implications and analogies for what we consider the ecclesia of Christ:

• Leprosy has a long incubation period.  It can take years, even a decade or two, for symptoms to definitively show up.
• It’s actually not easily contagious.  It takes close and repeated contact with someone who has untreated leprosy.  Children are more susceptible than adults.
• Leprosy primarily attacks the nerve endings.  Left unchecked, this will lead to loss of feeling and muscle weakness, leading to atrophy and deterioration.

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