MASTERY AND ITS COSTS

We are born with the needful urge to master our environment. It is what propels a child to take his first steps and to continue even after the falls and bruises. It is what motivates us to observe and to learn.

Even mice have this urge. Experiments have shown that mice in a maze quickly find the right door to the food. In an article, “The Age of Anxiety,” Donald Barnhouse reported that the experimenter then locks the door to the food and unlocks a different door to the food, causing the rat noticeable anxiety. However, eventually, he finds the right door. Barnhouse wrote that the same frustrating and confusing circumstances were repeated with a third door:

·       …until the rat became a nervous wreck; he became thin with bad color in his hair, dilated pupils, quickened pulse, and finally, all the symptoms of insanity.

This seems to also be the plight of modern humanity. We strive for mastery but also encounter very frustrating and stress-producing circumstances that can lead to many forms of disability.

What can be done? The Roman emperor and philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, advised a stiff-upper-lip:

·       Thou must be like a promontory of the sea, against which, though the waves beat continually, yet it both stands, and about it are those swelling waves stilled and quieted.

More easily said than done! After a bit, we find that we are also like these mice in a maze. The waves of frustration and stress wear us down to the breaking point. In fact, Scripture warns us against adorning ourselves with Aurelius’ self-confidence:

·       Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:12-13 ESV)

Mastery and self-confidence have their limits, and, for good reason, they tend to be costly. Barnhouse explained his remedy:

·       We have sought the will of God…We do not dash against [closed] doors [as the mice in the experiments] but expect God to open them for us. If we do press hard against a door that does not open, we recognize that our Lord wants us to go in another direction, and we wait upon Him. If there come great testings, we consider it pure joy (James 1:2). When we are insulted and despised, we can count it as part of our suffering for Christ Who said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad” (Matthew 5:11-12).

When we don’t have our Lord upon whom to cast our cares, hurts, and fears, we become mice in a frustrating maze, and life becomes oppressive.