I Wake Again

 

“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me. I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.”         Psalm 3:5-6

I found this progression intriguing. This is a psalm of David when he is on the run from his own son, Absalom. One could certainly call this a troubling situation. I mean, seriously. Yet when it comes to finding strength and perspective to trust God he starts with something so basic, so seemingly mundane—something most of us are too rushed, too anxious to consider.

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.

This is something that happens night after night. It is an evidence of God’s provision at the most basic level. In the same way—you just took a breath—did you have to try and do that? Can you alone take credit for the air that fills your lungs?

Jesus does a similar thing in his teaching on worry and anxiety. He points our attention to the birds in the sky and to the flowers of the field. When is the last time you noticed the birds in the sky and flowers of the field?

This of course can seem trite when we are in the midst of losing it, but in fact, like with everything else, Jesus wisdom is profound. I’ve heard that the Greek word for anxious has as its root the word for parts. To be anxious is to be scattered-to be fragmented-its when a part of you is here and another part of you is not here. In the midst of this sort of mental state-taking time to notice the small and the mundane is exactly the medicine we need because it brings you back together. Noticing something you see everyday requires a presence of mind and consciousness that is moving in the opposite direction of anxiety.

Then Paul says to us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Peace in the midst of anxiety is preceded by thanksgiving.

Often when anxiety or worry has us in a strangle hold we look, and only look, for big signs of God’s provision. In fact most times a total alleviation of our anxiety is the only thing that will do, and yet over and over again the sages, the ones who have come before us and traveled beyond us, do not point us in that direction—instead they point us to the evidence of God’s faithfulness that we are in the habit of missing—that we do not see because we are not paying attention.

Here in lies the great secret of peace—it does not come solely from the alleviation of what troubles us, but from a grounded awareness and trust that the God behind everything is in fact good.