Worry

Don’t worry, be happy…

Bobby McFerrin

“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Matthew 6:25-27

We have these words above to remind us not to worry, right? But, do we worry? Yes, we do. I think that anxieties, to some degree, are endemic to the human condition. Some people worry a lot, some much less so, but we all worry some.

There have been times in my life when I had some issue on my mind, and rationally, I knew that it was not really a valid concern. The things I were fearing might happen were completely unlikely to occur, yet it kept entering my mind.

Such is the nature of anxiety. Much of it is irrational fear, and beyond our control. Indeed, if we could exert some control over the outcome, we would not have anxiety. Taking the irrational thought captive, and speaking truth to it- sometimes repeatedly- is the remedy that we need to employ.

Sometimes, the worry causes us to rethink our behaviors, and serves as a reminder that we might be able to avoid that particular worry in the future. Sometimes too, it may cause us to draw closer to God, knowing that he holds our future, and that his love is sustaining.

So, if we can redeem worry into a closer walk with God, we have taken control of it in a different way- a way that can serve us better in the future.

Prayer: Lord, you are the One upon whom we can safely cast our fears, Amen