Back around the turn of the last century psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson did some experiments which indicated that if you agitate a mouse it performs better, but only up to a point. Stress it out too much and the rodent backslides. Behaviorists now call this sweet-spot between a hammock and a bed of nails “optimal anxiety.” The popular term is “comfort zone.” Writer Daniel Pink dubs it “productive discomfort”: when the bed is just right, Goldilocks takes a nap and nothing gets done; introduce a trio of bears and she does some productive cardio training.
Paul confronts a Philippian church jerked wide awake by a bruising battle between its two pastors, but he doesn’t seem overwhelmed. Amidst a lot of talk about rejoicing and being non-anxious and God’s peace doing sentinel duty over one’s heart and mind, he approaches this rift as an opportunity for ministry. He even tosses a third, unnamed minister into the mix as his special envoy. Of course, the apostle sits this battle out from the safety of his ringside cell in a Roman dungeon, but we still get the idea that the whole mess holds hope for increased growth among the Philippian saints.
Sometimes it seems that the modern American church is too comfortable to be creative in the face of stimulating conflict. Sensitive to seekers and saints alike we pad the pews and the preaching until our feet are shod, not with the gospel of peace but with the bunny-slippers of a mild coma. The slightest hint of conflict freaks us out and leaves us doubting that the local church can really be what the Lord had in mind, since surely a lobotomized bliss is the logical outcome of following a crucified Lord.
Optimal anxiety and productive discomfort: Maybe the Lord makes the soup too hot, the chair too small and the bed too hard to keep us from settling in for a long winter’s nap. “The Lord is near!” Paul tosses in that aside like an IED buried by the side of the straight and narrow way. And that thought should supply enough productive anxiety to keep us working hard at loving one another in ways that open new possibilities in an ever-expanding Christian community.
Anxiously,
Doug
Collect
God of peace, your servant Paul urged the church at Philippi to embrace conflict as an opportunity to grow. Grant us grace in our inevitable times of disagreement to seek understanding rather than victory, and unity rather than sameness. This we pray in the name of the God whose Oneness is Unity in Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Benediction
May the Lord make you one,
But never make you the same.
May the Lord make you peaceful,
But never make you boring.
May the Lord make your mind to dwell
On the things that last forever.
In the name of the Father,
And of the Son,
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