Fear and Kievits
I will always remember the first time it happened. I was young and I had been warned. The warnings were scarcely enough to prepare me for the onslaught though. Their screeching and meticulously timed aerial attacks were really very effective. I’ve since been comforted by documentaries showing them chasing off predators more fierce than me, but it’s hard to tell if the predators are terrified or just irritated. I certainly was more than irritated ducking and diving across the field trying to escape the nesting plovers (or Kievits as we called them).
It was only a while later, as I grew up a little, that I began to wonder just how much damage a dive-bombing bird could possibly do. It occurred to me that they probably weighed less than a cricket ball and travelled slower too. Sure, a cricket ball doesn’t make that sound, and it doesn’t keep coming back at you again and again, but a cricket ball doesn’t worry about getting hurt in an actual collision either. When I realised this, I was able to walk calmly through their barrage of smoke and mirrors, unafraid and amused by their bravery and incredible powers of intimidation.
Walking through one such attack recently, made me think of a message I found online. It said simply “Your anxiety is lying to you”. It’s a striking parallel. Just like plovers, much of what makes us anxious is nothing more than a perceived threat, a terrifying distraction that will never cause any actual damage. Fear is a useful survival instinct, we should be afraid when lions are chasing us, but the truth is, they seldom do. Think about it, much of what makes us afraid never actually happens.
If that’s true, and anxiety is often a deception, then just like the deception of the plovers, it’s best countered by the truth. The Bible claims to be the word of God, and it claims to be the truth. In a world of fake news it’s refreshing to think that there is a source of truth and, as Jesus said, that truth can set us free (John 8:-31-32).
At the root of so much of our anxiety lies the fear of being unloved, unwanted, powerless or without purpose. Jesus counters these lies with the truth that we are deeply loved and valued by God, and that He created us with a purpose. Although we truly are powerless in many situations in life, He isn’t, and He isn’t going to leave us or forsake us. Our anxiety isn’t always going to be caused by something as trivial as a plover, Jesus tells us openly that we are to expect trouble and suffering just like He Himself endured, but He also assures us that we are to rely on His constant presence and power to overcome that trouble and render it as harmless as an irritating, noisy bird.
