Heads up!

“The LORD says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies 
  a footstool for your feet.’  The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!’… He will drink from a brook along the way, and so he will lift his head high (Psalm 110:1-2,7).”

I realized something about myself today. I am what we call in English a “worry wart”.

A worry wart is a person who worries incessantly about everything. On the Word Detective website, different suggestions as to the origin of the term are offered.

The contributors mention that just as a wart is annoying, a worry wart who constantly complains about their worries is bothersome. Another suggestion was that the term came from the thought that people who worry all the time actually produce a fever blister.

As a kid, I read Mad Magazine, whose mascot is Alfred E. Neuman. His signature phrase is “What, me worry?”

As an English teacher, I was intrigued by a the semantic meaning of this word question. Wordnik.com offers the following:

As an interrogatory, indicative of a nonchalant towards potential criticism, not caring about what other people think, confident and self-possessed.

Answers.com adds to the meaning:

It means ‘ I don’t have to worry about anything’. Often in the english language questions are asked to oneself that reaffirm that everything is OK.

‘What me worry?’ – nothing

I find it interesting that we talk to ourselves in order to gain comfort. My form of this is more of a mutter.

 

Worry itself has an interesting etymology. As far back as the 700s it was a warfare term denoting a raid or harassment by a military force.  The Germans trace it back to their term for “strangle”.

 

It wasn’t until the early 1800s that the term began its modern usage. It began to gain credence as the word for “mental distress”.

 

Alfred E. Neuman’s history isn’t as old as the word “worry”, but his caricature goes back farther than you might imagine. His face was used in some form to depict poor Irish immigrants in the late 19th century.

 

Later, the phrase “Me Worry?” was added to his caricature in the 1920s. Those who opposed a third term for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940s used his caricature to describe his supporters.

 

Mad Magazine begin using his face in the 1950s. They were even sued by someone, but his origin goes back so far that the case was thrown out of court.

 

The face has been associated with the word “idiot”. The inference is that someone who doesn’t worry is stupid because we do have a lot to worry about. don’t we?

 

 There are some who believe that there is a place in our brain for worry. It is a vacuum that needs to be filled. When one worry is moved out, another one comes in to take its place.

 

I could see that to be true. This morning I determined that my relationship to worry is that is a spiritual stronghold.

 

Pastor Gordy Steck provides a Bible study on the term. It means “fortress” or “castle”.

 

His study shows that God is referred to as a stronghold. It also is used in the Bible to refer to strong power that opposes the knowledge of God.

 

The apostle Paul wrote:

 

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (II Corinthians 10:4).”

 

Thus, the military origin of the term “worry” as a word meaning “an attack of the enemy” makes sense.  Worry can come in with just a litte raid, and gain such a victory that it can build a fort in our hearts.

 

That’s what I believe is going on with me. I have a powerful enemy outpost behind my lines, in my heart, that needs to be rooted out.  This fortress  is a big source of discouragement.

 

Pastor Steck has a message available online that is the best  I have ever heard concerning dealing with discouragement. It is called “I Will Walk With My Head High”.

 

Pastor Steck mentions a lot of things which can put our head down: troubles, sins, bad leaders, our enemy Satan, and even the idea that God is opposed to us.

 

He further mentions things that discourage us: personal failure, prolonged spiritual warfare, uanswered prayer, physical and emotional pain, and personal sin.

 

Wow! I certainly do have a lot of things to worry about. I think I have experienced every one of the things he has mentioned.

 

I am grateful that Pastor Steck says that God is the lifter of our heads, and is indeed the only One who can do it. In fact, Pastor Steck says we get into trouble when we try to lift our own heads. 

 

He also offers strategies for keeping our heads up when God gets them in that position. For example, he suggests setting our eyes on God’s greatness (including a suggestion that we go out and look at the stars). 

 

k.d. lang writes of her experience with worry:

  

i can feel a mountain rain
that’ll wash away
and shine again
empty my pockets
that were weighing me down
sift through my soul
to see what’s lost and found
gonna walk away from trouble
with my head held high
then look closely you’ll see
luck in my eyes”

This morning, sitting in the car after church, waiting for my family, I did some soul-sifting of my own. I prayed and bashed down the stronghold of worry, and attacked a few more fortesses in my heart for good measure.

“I can hear a howling wind
that sweeps away
the pain that’s been
take all my sorrow
and i’ll cast away
the worries tomorrow
that i had today
gonna walk away from trouble
with my head held high
then look closely you’ll see
luck in my eyes”

all my troubles, all my troubles, gone
with luck in my eyes
all my worry’s all my worry’s, gone.”

When I wake up tomorrow, I probably will have to battle again against my worry. After all, as Pastor Steck said in his sermon, we have to stand our ground and fight back (I Timothy 6:12).

I can walk away from my worries after defeating them, with my head held high. However, it won’t be “luck” you’ll see in my eyes at that point. Hopefully, it will be the Spirit of Jesus.

He’s the one doing battle for me to conquer the strongholds in my heart, including that of worry. Jesus’s head is up and alert, and He has the power to defeat those fortresses.

Knowing He has His head up in the battle allows me to keep mine.

 

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