The Chicken Little Problem
By Ed Crumley
One day Chicken Little was walking through the forest when an acorn fell on her head. “Oh my, oh my!” she exclaimed. “The sky is falling! I must run and tell the king!” You know the rest of the story. On the way to see the king, Chicken and her equally scared bird friends, Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, and Goosey Loosey ran into Foxy Loxy who slyly told them that only he knew the way to the king but would gladly show them. Of course, he only wanted to trick them into his den so they could become items on his menu.
“Don’t run with those scissors; you’ll put your eye out!” or “If you cross your eyes, they’ll stick that way.” Remember those alarming admonitions of a relative, usually a mother or grandmother?
Those instructions were mild compared to what we’re constantly being bombarded with today. After several decades of sensationalistic, “expert” lecturers promoted and abetted by an unrelenting drumbeat from the national media, stories about Alar, bird flu, swine flu, E. coli, Ebola, DDT, MTBE, BSE, CFCs, global cooling, and now warming, as a few examples, have raised the fear threshold of citizens to hair-trigger levels. Cherry-picked Foxy Loxy “scientists” have panicked and subjugated the minds of modern Chicken Little-type Christians and unbelievers alike and confiscated ever more of their freedoms all in the name of what’s good for them.
The king had an answer for Miss Little, and the KING has answers for us. Jesus had a lot to say in Matthew 6 about worry. He said that if God takes care of insignificant things like grass, why would we think He wouldn’t take care of us who are His children. He said God knows what we need before we ask, so instead of worrying about it, just exercise a little faith through obedience to what He has already asked of us and He will take care of the rest.
Also, in the New Testament, Peter wrote: “Since God cares for you, turn all your worries over to Him.” He was repeating what David wrote in Psalms 55:22: “Lord, we belong to you. We tell you what worries us, and you won’t let us fall.”
The Apostle Paul told the believers at Philippi not to be anxious about anything, but when making a request to God, do it with thanksgiving and they would have peace that only He could give. He said they could handle anything through Christ who would strengthen them. He said that God would supply all their needs. He also told them that instead of constantly entertaining negative thoughts, they should reorient their thinking toward good things, things of truth, nobility, justice, praiseworthiness, and virtue . . . and . . . meditate on them.
Chicken Little thinking only reigns in the minds and hearts of those who either are unaware of or have no faith in God’s sovereignty. God asked Job if he was around when the universe was created and how much of it he was responsible for. None of it, Job finally admitted.
So what do we do with all the bad news roaring around us? How about listening to the Lord as in Jer. 29:11: “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
