Can I confess something with you? I tend to be an anxious person. To some it is obvious when they are around me. Sometimes it is unnoticeable. (Or at least I think it is!)
There have been times when people have come to me and said "Just stop worrying." The response that I often keep to myself is "You don't know what you are talking about! I have real reasons to be worried!"
isn't that right though? We have reasons to be worried. Real reasons. We might make those reasons bigger than what they really are, but they are reasons. Nice platitudes of "everything is going to be okay" have no power against those reasons.
One of those reasons may be the threat of an unknown virus.
One of those reasons may be the threat of a lost relationship
One of those reasons may be the loss of job, or money, or livelihood.
Almost always that reason is the loss of control.
Those reasons are like summer heat to a tree. We think of heat this time of year as a good thing, keeping us warm from the long cold of a Seattle winter. But, we know that too much heat- too many real reasons to worry- can dry our souls out.
Are those very real reasons the very last word on the subject?
In Jeremiah 17:7–8, the Lord says to his people:
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (ESV)
The person who trusts in the Lord flourishes in the midst of the heat that causes the drought. The heat is real (!), but the heat is not enough to make the faith-filled person fearful or anxious or barren. There is something about letting the Lord be in control and trusting that he is good at being in control that causes a person's real reasons to be anxious to dry up instead of their soul.
We need a reason greater than the reasons that make us anxious in order to trust a Good Father. God himself knew what it was like to live in the heat. Jesus lived a life where fear surrounded him, where threats were waiting on the periphery to destroy him, where brokenness and sin were the air he breathed.
Experiencing what we experience, he did not fear. On the contrary, he was so full of life (like a tree planted by water) that no worry could hold him back by acting out the fullest expression of love anyone has ever expressed: giving his life for the sake of those who counted him as an enemy. He took the heat of the punishment of sin in order to draw us close enough that we might trust him and be one of these "blessed" people.
The love that God demonstrated at the cross in the life of the Son is a bigger, more powerful reason not to worry than the lists of reason we have to worry.
Drought will come. The inescapable heat of summer will come. The reality of our short existence on this planet is that our desire for comfort and safety will be interrupted by the reality of the unknown, the uncontrollable, and the uncomfortable. Microscopic, unseen invaders will attack our bodies and threaten our "normalcy."
But, perfect love casts out fear. Knowing God's abundant love drives out anxiety when we realize that his love does not dry up in the heat of the real reasons to be anxious.