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Crossroads of the Marine Corps

“Worry and a Rocking chair”

24 Jul 2015 | LCDR Chris Stanfield, Chaplain Marine Corps Base Quantico

The things that can occupy our thoughts are truly worrisome – children, family, relationships, career, retirement, parents, friends, finances, negative cultural influences, addictions, and the list go on. There are a lot of things we can worry about! And, I worry that we worry too much.

In this article, we will explore the topic of worry, how it relates to a rocking chair, some practical steps we can take to reduce it, and a key Christian principle that, when applied to our lives, will help move us from frustration to liberation.

I have great memories of my great-grandma sitting on the front porch rocking back and forth in her rocking chair. She also dipped snuff, a powdered tobacco, and had mastered the art of spitting (she could hit a spittoon from five to six feet away while rocking). I remember she would do this most of the morning in her rocker. I would join her from time to time, and recall how mesmerizing it was to rock back and forth. And, to this day I enjoy relaxing in a rocking chair. But there are at least two similarities between a rocking chair and worry.

First, they both give you something to do, but get you nowhere. Imagine spending only two hours in rocking chair. The entire time you are using your leg and core muscles to move the chair back and forth. How many calories could you burn rocking for two hours? And, yet at the end you are at the same place you started. Worry seems to be a lot like that. It gives us something to do, sometimes for an entire day, but gets us nowhere.

Secondly, if you move at all it is generally backward. Have you ever noticed that about rocking? The next time you visit Cracker Barrel try their front porch rockers. In about ten minutes you will have to readjust the chair. They move backwards. Worry and stress tends to move us in that same direction –backward. I can’t tell you how many times worrying about something had created more problems for me, than if I had just learned to avoid it or overcome it.

The Bible has some important things to say about worry. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus begins a teaching by saying, “Don’t worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes.” (6:25). He then explains how God provides our every need, and that our main goal is to, “seek first the Kingdom of God,” (v. 33).

So, how do we avoid worry and stress and seek the Kingdom of God? I suggest we begin with the basics. Practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer and study. Do you pray daily? Do you have a devotional reading or scripture lesson you read daily? Maintaining a close relationship with God and His teachings will help develop a big picture view of life and our circumstances. If we take Jesus at his words, and really believe that God knows our needs, then we can also trust Him to provide those needs. And, when we make a habit of giving these “worries” over to God, we avoid the similarities worry has with a rocking chair.

Marine Corps Base Quantico