Daily Lesson for January 12, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 4 verse 8:

"In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

A week ago I was asked by someone about my fears for the church.  "What beyond your control keeps you up at night?"  I am sure it was surprise when I answered quite quickly, "Nothing."  In fact, it seemed such a surprise and so almost a dismissal of the question that then I felt badly and tried to think of something that should keep me up worrying.

Worry and anxiety define our time. To not lose sleep with worry is an act of counter-cultural resistance; and resistance takes courage and a strong will.  Inevitably the refusal of worry ends in charges of naïveté and irresponsibility.  That says more about the anxieties of the accusers than it does the accused.  This is the truth in T.S. Eliot's poetic line, “In a world of fugitives, the person taking the opposite direction will appear to run away.”

Going the opposite way against worry will be to appear to run away.  That is because it is an affront to the anxiety of the age. It puts us at odds with our neighbors and indeed the whole world.  But being at odds with the world ought to be a matter of course for people of faith.  As Flannery O'Connor said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."

We do know the truth. The truth is not a sparrow falls to the ground without God watching over it. We are far more precious than many sparrows. And therefore God watches over us. We trust God to watch over us.  And so even in a world full of many things to worry over, we -- the self-entrusted, can sleep.

And if that makes us odd in his world then so be it.