July 16, 2024
During stressful times, when unpaid bills still lie on the table, the children argue upstairs, and images of war flash across the news, hope and patience seem hard to come by. Worry seems inevitable. But how much can we really gain from our furrowed brow? Consider this quote: “Worry is like a good rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”
Another way to think of the futility of worry is to imagine someone carrying around a suitcase of old junk that he doesn’t use. If he complained to you about his aching back, wouldn’t you suggest he drop the suitcase?
But we tend to do the same thing, feeling troubled, tired, and pulled off-balance. We hang on to our burden because we think something bad might happen if we let it go. But the answer is so easy. If we simply let go—if we trust in the Lord—we suddenly feel lighter.
We hear this same message from the Lord’s own mouth when He says to His disciples, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. … Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:22–24; Luke 12:27). …
Worry can’t change our past or future, but it can ruin the present. When we dwell on the past or future, we lack motivation to make progress now. … But we can make an effort to find contentment with what we have and focus on being that person who is kind and loving rather than looking for that person elsewhere. Second, we can strive to make the best of our present situation, looking for opportunities to use our talents and reach out to others. And, finally, we can trust the Lord to bring good out of every situation, believing that what He says in His Word is true. …
Life is often compared to a journey. We can shuffle our feet and mope about the path we’re taking, but anxiety and impatience don’t change our speed or route. Instead, we can enjoy the scenery, confident that the direction of the stream of Divine Providence will steer us toward a more beautiful vista. So don’t waste today worrying. Cast your burden on the Lord. Take a glance at the flowers, or listen to the birds, and remember that the Lord is taking care of each one of us every single moment.—David Roth1
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My friend Lucy called recently, worried. She’d been looking forward to an upcoming trip to meet her first grandchild, but concern over COVID had her concerned.
What if she contracts the virus and gives it to her daughter and new grandchild. What if she gets sick and can’t fly home. What if. …
And so it goes—the free fall into the worry abyss. If this happens, then next that happens, and so on.
Humans can imagine days, even years into the future and consider “what might happen.” The problem is that thinking does not make it true. Worrying is not supportive. We want to believe that worrying helps us solve challenges ahead of time, but it does not, because it cannot.
Anticipating every conceivable outcome will not get us any closer to a solution. Worrying never helped solve a problem.
We have no control over the future, so therefore, we cannot choose the best response to an unknown. Lying awake, worrying about a range of potential problems is at best a waste of time and energy, and at worst your anxiety may deplete the energy you need to respond properly when the time comes.
Too often, in the middle of the night we start to catastrophize about the worst-case scenarios. One potential problem leads us to another potential problem, spinning us into dizzying circles instead of leading us to solutions.
A recent study showed how many of our imagined calamities never materialize. The subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time, and then later they were to identify which of the imagined misfortunes didn’t happen. It turns out that 85% of what the subjects worried about never happened, and of the 15% that did happen, 79% of subjects discovered that they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning. This means that 97% of what you worry about could just be your fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.
[Most challenges] are just bumps in the road: inconvenient, not fun, but only bumps. Worrying never (ever) fixed a thing. So stop focusing on the bumps in the road. Instead, look up and enjoy the present of this moment as you journey through life. Don’t let your thoughts get hijacked by worrying.—Amy Dee2
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If there was one thing that we could classify as a global pastime, worrying might just top the list. We’d probably all be shocked to discover the sheer amount of time that we’ve wasted by worrying.
That’s right. Wasted. In most cases, worrying is a wasted emotion. Most of our anxiety is about an imaginary future. We worry about situations that haven’t occurred and may never occur.
One of the hard lessons I’ve had to learn in life is that worrying harder, worrying more, or worrying better than someone else still gets you nowhere. Worrying just isn’t productive. It doesn’t produce any positive results. In fact, it often just leads to more worries, greater worries, and a lack of progress. …
I was an expert worrier. I worried day and night. … Almost all of my reasons for worrying were imaginary. I was worrying about things that hadn’t occurred and never would. …
It wasn’t that I wasn’t worrying hard enough, or well enough. I was an Olympic-caliber worrier. It was that worrying changes nothing.
I learned a lesson that I still utilize today. Instead of worrying without cause, I look at what I can do. Is there any way I can change the thing I am worried about? If yes, I have a plan. If no, it must not be my cause for concern.
What worries can you let go of today?—Annie Grace
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J. Arthur Rank, an English executive, decided to do all his worrying on one day each week. He chose Wednesdays. When anything happened that gave him anxiety and annoyed his ulcer, he would write it down and put it in his worry box and forget about it until next Wednesday. The interesting thing was that on the following Wednesday when he opened his worry box, he found that most of the things that had disturbed him the past six days were already settled. It would have been useless to have worried about them.—Author unknown3
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One of the wonderful things about God’s love is that when we know that God loves us, we know that He is going to work everything in our lives somehow for our good, and He will take care of us. This is faith! And it’s faith in His love that keeps out worry and fear. “For perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4:18). Receiving God’s love in your heart is like turning on a light in a dark room—the darkness flees!
Then you don’t need to worry anymore. You’ll know your heavenly Father loves you and that you and yours—your family, your children, your future, your health—are in His hands. “For not even one sparrow falls to the ground, but your Father knows it. Fear not, therefore: You are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 6:25–34; Luke 12:6–7). He will care for His own.
The two greatest sources of fear and worry for most people are the past and the future—remorse over the past and fear about the future. But the Bible tells us not to worry about either. “Forget the things that are behind” and “fret not yourself for tomorrow” (Philippians 3:13; Matthew 6:34). And for the present, He says, “God will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him, because they trust in Him” (Isaiah 26:3).
Jesus says, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Again, such rest and trust in the Lord is faith, and you’ll find that your faith will grow and be strengthened by reading God’s Word (Romans 10:17). So read the Bible, the Gospels in particular, and let His wonderful words replace your fears and worries with faith and trust.
And if you give your whole life to the Lord in service to Him, doing your best to follow Jesus and help others, you’ll find that He’ll do His best for you. He’ll not only care for you and provide your needs, but the Bible says that God will give you the desire of your heart if you delight yourself in Him (Psalm 37:4). Your worries and problems then become His worries and problems, and you can “commit your ways unto the Lord, casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you” (Psalm 37:5; 1 Peter 5:7).—The Family International
Published on Anchor July 2024. Read by Jerry Paladino. Music by Michael Fogarty.
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