The Rocking Chair

There is something about a rocking chair.
Rocking chairs have contact with the floor at only two points.
This enables a person to shift his or her weight by pushing slightly with their feet.
That gentle motion gives the person the ability to rock.

The rocking chair will automatically rock back until the person’s center of gravity is met.
That keeps the person at an unstressed position and angle.
Many people who suffer from bad backs find relief in rocking chairs for this reason.
Rocking chairs are often associated with mothers and babies.
The rocking motion soothes the infant because it moves so gently.

The invention of the rocking chair is usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin.
Yet historians trace its origin to the early 18th century, when Franklin was a child.
By the mid 18th century, wicker rocking chairs were popular and found in many gardens.

I have two favorite rocking chairs in my home.
One is a Carolina rocker that is in my family room.
It has a cane seat and I find it so comfortable, sitting near the fireplace.
The other is just a simple wood rocker that used to be in our nursery.
It is the chair I fed my children in each night; the one I rocked them in, just because.

With a child in your arms or a book on your lap, there is comfort in a rocking chair.
However, you can’t stay there!

A dear friend and I were talking and she mentioned the rocking chair analogy.
I had never heard that before.
I so appreciated the word picture that came to my mind.

Worry is like sitting in a rocking chair.
You sit and you think, you worry, and you mull things over and over in your head.
All the while, you are continuously rocking in your rocking chair.
While you are sitting and rocking, and rocking and thinking, there is movement.
But there is no forward motion.

I pictured myself sitting in a rocking chair; no baby in my arms, no book on my lap.
I pictured myself with the weight of my problems on any given day holding me there.
Rocking is senseless motion on autopilot; not forward motion towards a goal.

I never thought about worry that way before.

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 important than food, and the body more important 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? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown in  the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagan run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6: 25-34)

Worry will not add a single hour to your life or to the life of a loved one.
Worry does not keep those things away that may harm us.
Worry will keep us from enjoying the day and the people God has placed before us.

Worry is not beneficial.
Worry is not productive.
Worry robs us of joy!

Worry is rocking back and forth, not going anywhere.
Even though worry can make a person agitated, it becomes comfortable after a while.
The person is so used to worrying, they have to find something to worry about at all times.

Worry is a lack of faith.
A lack of faith in the One who holds everything in His Hand.
The One who is Sovereign over all.

If you must sit in a rocking chair, first ponder His Kingdom and His Righteousness.
He will give you all the things you need; not necessarily all the things you want.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Get out of the rocking chair and stop worrying!
Stop rocking and start moving forward!