Van Dyke: leaving anxiety

Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
    —Luke 12:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is such a thing as taking ourselves and the world too seriously, or at any rate too anxiously. Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain idea that every man is bound to be a critic of life, and to let no day pass without finding some fault with the general order of things, or projecting some plan for its improvement. And the other half comes from the greedy notion that a man’s life does consist, after all, in the abundance of the things that he possesses, and that it is, somehow or other, more respectable and pious to be always at work making a larger living, than it is to lie on your back in the green pastures and beside the still waters, and thank God that you are alive.
    ... Henry van Dyke (1852-1933), Little Rivers: a book of essays in profitable idleness, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908, p. 35 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:15; Ps. 17:13-15; 37:16; Pr. 15:16; Eccl. 5:10; Matt. 6:25-26; Luke 8:14; 1 Tim. 6:6-8; Heb. 13:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I thank you for my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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