It is a matter of perspective. While I am focussed inwards and trapped by my own preoccupations, I am limited by the volume of my cranium. Worries bounce like echoes off the inside walls of my skull - oh, does that imply an emptiness in there? I am certainly caught within a closed system.

There was a worrier who spent all day and most the night at his computer, researching worrisome things and quizzing others for their responses on a Christian forum. Several good souls tried to calm his fears with rational responses seasoned with some sound advice, but to little avail. It had become something of a lifestyle and while he was so absorbed in his own spiritual anxieties, there was little room for anything else to squeeze its way in as well.

It is interesting how we often need to do the opposite of what we are doing now. One who holds on needs to let go. One who looks inward needs to look outward. One who is self absorbed needs to care for others. One who is sedentary needs to get mobile. One who worries needs to trust that God is greater than all those worries and is able to handle them if asked, and bring about a good outcome for all who love Him and are prepared to do as He bids them.

While it is a matter of perspective, as unpopular as these next words might be, it is also (dare I say it?) a matter of obedience.

Out in the Fields

The little cares which fretted me,
I lost them yesterday
Among the fields, above the sea,
Among the winds at play;
Among the lowing of the herds,
The rustling of the trees,
Among the singing of the birds,
The humming of the bees.

The foolish fears of what may come,
I cast them all away
Among the clover scented grass,
Among the new mown hay;
Among the hushing of the corn,
Where drowsing poppies nod,
Ill thoughts can die, and good be born,
Out in the fields of God.

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806-1861)

Matthew 6:28-30 “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you?”