The Lookout

Careful by nature, and at your best when there is something to do.

Careful
Restless mind

Picture: The Lookout – “All's Well”, Winslow Homer, 1896

You are careful by nature, and you are at your best with something to do. When you spot a problem, you would rather fix it than sit and worry.

What you bring

You see risks others miss.
People trust you to be careful with them.
You get things done.

What it costs you

You wait to be sure, and the moment can pass.
Worry can pass for wisdom.
Rest can feel like losing.

Where the trap is set

Fear

Gregory says the tempter studies each person first, then sets the trap right next door. For the cheerful it’s pleasure. For the gloomy it’s a quarrel. For the proud it’s praise. For the careful, it’s fear.

“Because the timid dread punishments, he threatens terrors to the fearful.”
St Gregory the Great, Moralia on Job

So your temptation rarely looks like temptation. It looks like worry. What if they are upset? What if it goes wrong? What if I say it, and it costs me?

The gift in it

Your care is a gift. Gregory says the fearful should not stay in fear. Fed by love, they should grow until love does what fear used to do.

“grow up by the nursing of charity to the grace of love”
St Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule

A restless mind

Gregory says some minds are so restless that time off only makes their thoughts worse. They should work hard, and not force themselves into long stretches of stillness.

“there be some so restless, that if they have cessation from labour, they have only the worse labour”
St Gregory the Great, Moralia on Job

Who else was like this

Moses

When God called him he said, “I am slow of speech and tongue,” and begged God to send someone else. Then he led a whole people through the desert for forty years.

Exodus 4:10-13

Gideon

“My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house,” he said. He obeyed God, but he did it at night, because he was afraid.

Judges 6:15, 27

Its opposite

The Oak

Sure of yourself, and at your best when life is quiet.

St Mary of Bethany The Oak
St Martha The Lookout

When Jesus came to their home, Martha was busy with all the preparations. Her sister Mary sat at His feet and listened. Martha asked Him to tell Mary to help. He said, “you are worried and upset about many things,” and that Mary “has chosen the good portion”. When their brother died, it was Martha who went out to meet Him, while Mary stayed at home. John writes, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Both are saints.

Luke 10:38-42; John 11:5, 20