Be One with the Wildebeest

I want to tell you about wildebeest on the African Plane.  But first, to get you thinking read these words from Jesus.  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ...” (Matthew 6:25-34). 

I sat pondering what I would write for this blog and realized that – well, I was worried about it. Instantly, it came to me. One of my favorite stories I share with folks when they are, well, worried. 

Worry comes in a couple of common flavors. Both are unique to humans. We are the only creatures that feel anxiety over things that have not happened yet and regret over things that happened long ago. Believe it or not, God in his wisdom gave us these “gifts” as a tool. A tool to look forward into our future to plan, create, and plot a course in our lives. As well, we are able to look back into our past to remember when we met our spouse or got that special gift from our parents. We can also look back at events that didn’t go well in order to not repeat the same missteps. 

Sometimes it seems these gifts work against us. We fret about the future.  Can we pay the power bill? If we do, will there be enough money to put gas in the car or get groceries? 

Or it might be guilt about something we said to someone that didn’t come out right.  It sounded OK in my head, but not so much coming out of my mouth!  We’ve offended someone without meaning to and now we have regret. 

Worry comes along, and if we allow it to, can stop us dead in our tracks. Anxiety makes us freeze and we lose the ability to solve problems. Guilt and shame can keep us from having that hard conversation with someone that could clear the air. How do we get past this paralysis? That gets me back to my story about the wildebeest. 

Picture the African savanna. Now, picture a herd of wildebeest. What exactly do wildebeest do? They eat grass, make fertilizer, and create little wildebeest. They do this all day, then they sleep, and in the morning, they start the process over. This happens until a lioness comes along. The lioness wants lunch for herself and her little ones, but the wildebeest does not want to be lunch. So, the chase is on. Let’s say that after a few minutes the wildebeest gets away with its life and the lioness has to move on to dine elsewhere. Fifteen minutes later, guess what our wildebeest is doing?  She’s back to eating grass, making fertilizer, and creating little wildebeest. She’s not worried about the last lion or the next lion. 

I’m in no way saying we should give up these great gifts God gave us to plan and to remember.  I am saying that when you start fretting about the future or feeling depressed about the past, think about the wildebeest (and – oh yeah, Matthew 6:25-34). It takes practice. But if you can halt the physiological response to the lioness, you get to keep in contact with the creative, problem solving side of you. 

Be one with the wildebeest!