I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
--John 16:33

In “The World is Too Much With Us,” the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) lamented the condition of his society.[1] He believed that people in his time had become so caught up in pursuing material gain that their lives were constantly “out of tune”:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It [Nature] moves us not. (lines 1-4, 8-9)

Writing from a worldview that was more pagan than Christian, Wordsworth’s solution was for people to turn away from pursuing riches and turn their eyes toward Nature – finding peace and calm in the beauty of earthly landscapes and the cyclical rhythms of life.

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On the one hand, we can appreciate Wordsworth’s appeal for people to spend more time in the great outdoors: he himself loved taking long nature walks, and he wrote exquisite poetry capturing the beauty of the natural world. There’s certainly nothing wrong with spending time enjoying the world God made, for He has given us much that is “pleasant to the sight” (Genesis 2:9a), and He reveals much about Himself in His creation (Romans 1:20).

On the other hand, Wordsworth’s solution – a call to get back to Nature – has only limited benefit since the root of the problem is much larger than he realized.

First, the Bible teaches that mankind has been “out of tune” ever since the Fall, when Adam and Eve’s disobedience brought sin, discord, and death into the world. The solution to what ails human beings is not to take more hikes through mountains and meadows, but to lose ourselves in Christ (Mark 8:35). For it is only through regeneration and sanctification that we can be “in tune” (at peace) with our Maker and with others (John 16:33; Romans 5:1; 2 Corinthians 13:11).

Second, Wordsworth seeks in Nature what cannot be found there since it, too, bears the marks of the Fall and is waiting for its redemption no less than we who follow Christ (Romans 8:21-23).[2] Because the world still bears the beauty marks of its Creator, we can enjoy many aspects of the natural world; but we shouldn’t expect a blemished object to yield the type of long-lasting rest which can only be found in Christ (Matthew 11:28).

Finally, when we find ourselves bombarded by the bad-news-du-jour, we must remember that Jesus said the world would be like this – broken, discordant, and fraught with violence, both natural and manmade – until He comes to redeem it (Mark 13). Yet we must also remember that He promises to be with us (Hebrews 13:5), and He guarantees that His grace will be sufficient to meet our needs (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Consequently, the solution which eluded Wordsworth is readily available to all Christians: when we feel that “the world is too much with us,” we just need to turn our eyes away from the world and fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2-3).

For more insight to this topic, get the book, Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World, by C. J. Mahaney, from our online store. Or read Chuck Colson’s speech, “Innocent as Serpents: The Worldly World.”

[1] The poem can be found at http://www.wsu.edu/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/wordsworth.html

[2] Wordsworth’s successor as poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, more realistically described the natural world as “Nature, red in tooth and claw” to underscore the fact that the forces which sustain human life can just as easily destroy that life: a gentle rain may nourish crops which yield a life-giving harvest, but a torrential downpour can destroy those crops in an instant, bringing famine and death (Stanza 56, In Memoriam, A.H.H.).