Withdraw

When danger is imminent, or life is in peril, some animals and shellfish will pull their head back into their shell or body. It’s a natural safety mechanism which the great Creator designed into their being to protect against predators. We humans can’t physically do that, but in times of stress, loss or danger, we certainly do withdraw from the normal activities of everyday life.

A friend lost his wife too early. As a couple they were always together. The standing joke was, if you are looking for one of them, try to see where the other one might be. You can imagine then that the loss was felt deeply by the grieving person, now left on his own. His sister was heard to observe, “he’ll just retreat into himself, and withdraw”. She was right. Just like the tortoise who pulls his head inside his shell, figuratively speaking, this man also pulled his head inside his body for self protection.

We withdraw for another good reason too. Trouble doesn’t only come in a physical form. It can be through an emotional hurt, or someone you love and respect turning out to be less than you had thought. They had fallen off their perch, or maybe we had put them on a pedestal, but whichever it was, it affected you and the trust you had placed in them. The most striking example is the breakdown of a relationship or marriage, but it can also and easily be as simple as a little ‘white’ lie from a friend which had serious repercussions within your own life, or a strongly held and opposing point of view.

It can be safer to keep your head down, otherwise you could lose it. In the words of the old (not Biblical) proverb, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”!