Me A Worry Wort?

 A few afternoons ago, I wasted two and a half hours talking with a couple of fellas (with four or five other guys in and out of the conversation) about what a morning talk show host had divulged.  The “red tide” is keeping thousands of tourists from coming to southwest Flrodia.  It is going to wreck the economy while all along the Water Commissioners stand by and let it happen.  That was the brunt of the entire pity pot conversation among us. I Sometimes  think that the media makes a serious effort to keep the watchers, listeners, and readers all anxious, in a state of informed concern and always on the alert against just about everything.  When I think about how I respond:  I often find myself unbalanced, atypical, on guard, and more likely to manufacture fear.  There are more times than I like to admit of taking the advent of 24/7 news, a proliferation of “experts,” and a deluge of “the latest studies,” and out comes to an overdose of worry or outright fear. 

Everyday I am told that education standards are falling, the economy is in shambles, crime is rising, my food is dangerous, predators are on the prowl in neighborhoods, my body is under assault from saturated fats, and I can’t trust my bankers, accountants, or politicians. There are religious fanatics on the loose and weapons of mass destruction waiting to get me. Gas prices are bound to be over five dollars, work seems hard to get, yet there are “help wanted” signs all over the city and on top of it all, the poisoned environment is gearing up to offer a big time payback. 

The constant immersion in such things, the saturation of space, and the occupation of time by these ideas, does not add to the balance of hope, expectation, joy, or comfort. Could it be that into this culture framed narrative that I can listen to a word from another century? Jesus, speaking to his disciples, once said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” Matthew 6:25. How on earth can I not worry? 

Is this possible, is it practical, is it even real? There are whole industries, massive budgets, and multitudes of people, all whose business is marketing worry. Now I’m not exactly suggesting that there is some large scale conspiracy effort to manipulate. What I do mean, however, is that I get caught in living an unreflective life. There are too many times that I’m paying little (or any) attention to the things that may deeply influence or affect me. For example, it is a necessary condition of this economy to keep me restless, dissatisfied, and always seeking, wanting, striving for things, experiences, stuff, education, honors, fun, or whatever. Yet, this perpetual stimulus, as Kenneth Gergen writes in The Saturated Self, indeed has fallout. It leads, he proposes, to a condition of “multiphrenia.” 

I’ve noticed that I and many of my friends jokingly, throw around terms like ADD and many similar symptoms to describe our age. We are distracted, busy, under demand, and more often than not worn out or beaten down. So what am I to do to combat these forces that deeply affect me? When I was a child in Sinclair, Wyoming, I was taught a basic discipline essential to all children in area where walking to school over the old Lincoln Highway was the norm. I was taught to stay away except when when crossing traffic was inevitable, the key was learning to do it safely. Hence, I was taught: Stop! Look! Listen! These three words and practices were drummed into me. So at age seventy, I draw on this. 

Learning to stop is often the beginning point in my harassed life.  Too simply stop and be still. Then, look. Look around, look within, evaluate, and discern. Next, listen. What is it that I hear, see, sense? I’m thinking that culture’s invasive power may be resisted by a simple set of steps that break the hold of intrusion and allow me to reestablish my focus Matthew 6:33. I do remember what it means to have a fresh resolve to live differently, listen carefully, and act intentionally. My desire is to constantly live a fresh life.  One in which my will to live is unleashed.  Socrates is identified as having observed that the unexamined life is not worth living. I’m thinking this is some of the problem for me. I simply let life take over, circumstances dominate, and pressures define me. But a spirituality of resistance learns to say no.

Father, God, I just read what St. Paul wrote to the Philippian congregation, in the New Testament:  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, and with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” I ask for your help in intentionally living this way in order that your peace will guard my heart and mind.  Please keep me aware that there are vested interests in the promotion of worry and amplified anxiety, yet you being the Lord of history offer an alternative: TRUST IN CHRIST AND BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING!   Amen