“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what
you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more
important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the
birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of
you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about
clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I
tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of
these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you
of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)
Worry. I just wrote a letter to the editor in response to someone who is worried. I have some friends, and friends of friends, who have reason to worry. I’m a worrier. It’s a habit. More than once I have caught myself worrying and asked myself, “What are you worrying about?” and have not been able to come up with any answer. It wasn’t that the things I was worrying about weren’t important, it was that they didn’t exist. I was literally worrying about nothing. That’s taking worrying to a whole new level.
As I said, my friends, and friends of friends, have reason to worry. They’re facing big challenges and worse yet, those challenges end to involve lots of time waiting. Waiting for appointments. Waiting for reports. Waiting for bodies to recover. Waiting is a mother of worry.
Jesus said, “Do not worry.” How in the world does one “not worry”? Do we listen to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” or “Hakuna Matata” and our brains get off the gerbil wheel? My response to that idea is “Get Real!” The biggest thing we can do to not worry is to have faith, meaning that we give the cause of the worry over to God and trust Him to act on our behalf. But saying, “Here it is, Lord,” doesn’t tend to get me off the gerbil wheel any better than saying “Hakuna Matata.”
As I see it, there are two facets to worry. The first is mental. In Matthew 12, Jesus told a story of an evil spirit that has been driven from a man. It returns to the man and finds his “house” clean and neat but unoccupied, so it invites seven other evil spirits to move in with him there. I’m not saying that worrying thoughts are evil spirits or that they come from evil spirits (though that is one possible source. Another is from the thinker.) But it’s futile to say, “I’m not going to worry” and then not think about something else. Turn on some praise music and focus on the words. Read a good book. Go do something that takes your mind off the subject.
The other facet is the emotional. Worry and stress create energy that wears a person out. That energy can either be used to worry more, or it can be used to do something better. Exercise is a great response to the emotional part of worry, because it uses up the energy the emotions produce in a way that benefits. Anything to which that emotion can be productively directed is good. Anything good or positive that turns the focus of your attention – whether mental or emotional – way from the source of the worry is likely to be good.
One additional activity that seems to run counter to what I’ve just said is journaling. The act of putting the worry on paper, of explaining it clearly and concisely, of analyzing it and one’s responses can be very helpful. Talking to someone else can also be helpful. Even venting to someone else. There’s a danger in this. If one is not careful, this can turn into worry. My suggestion, give yourself a time limit. You have only thirty minutes to explain and express. Set a time. When the timer buzzes, set it for five minutes more and go clean for five minutes. Or, use only 15 minutes to explain and express and clean for five minutes twice, or three times.
Kicking worry out only works if something else takes its place.
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)
Worry. I just wrote a letter to the editor in response to someone who is worried. I have some friends, and friends of friends, who have reason to worry. I’m a worrier. It’s a habit. More than once I have caught myself worrying and asked myself, “What are you worrying about?” and have not been able to come up with any answer. It wasn’t that the things I was worrying about weren’t important, it was that they didn’t exist. I was literally worrying about nothing. That’s taking worrying to a whole new level.
As I said, my friends, and friends of friends, have reason to worry. They’re facing big challenges and worse yet, those challenges end to involve lots of time waiting. Waiting for appointments. Waiting for reports. Waiting for bodies to recover. Waiting is a mother of worry.
Jesus said, “Do not worry.” How in the world does one “not worry”? Do we listen to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” or “Hakuna Matata” and our brains get off the gerbil wheel? My response to that idea is “Get Real!” The biggest thing we can do to not worry is to have faith, meaning that we give the cause of the worry over to God and trust Him to act on our behalf. But saying, “Here it is, Lord,” doesn’t tend to get me off the gerbil wheel any better than saying “Hakuna Matata.”
As I see it, there are two facets to worry. The first is mental. In Matthew 12, Jesus told a story of an evil spirit that has been driven from a man. It returns to the man and finds his “house” clean and neat but unoccupied, so it invites seven other evil spirits to move in with him there. I’m not saying that worrying thoughts are evil spirits or that they come from evil spirits (though that is one possible source. Another is from the thinker.) But it’s futile to say, “I’m not going to worry” and then not think about something else. Turn on some praise music and focus on the words. Read a good book. Go do something that takes your mind off the subject.
The other facet is the emotional. Worry and stress create energy that wears a person out. That energy can either be used to worry more, or it can be used to do something better. Exercise is a great response to the emotional part of worry, because it uses up the energy the emotions produce in a way that benefits. Anything to which that emotion can be productively directed is good. Anything good or positive that turns the focus of your attention – whether mental or emotional – way from the source of the worry is likely to be good.
One additional activity that seems to run counter to what I’ve just said is journaling. The act of putting the worry on paper, of explaining it clearly and concisely, of analyzing it and one’s responses can be very helpful. Talking to someone else can also be helpful. Even venting to someone else. There’s a danger in this. If one is not careful, this can turn into worry. My suggestion, give yourself a time limit. You have only thirty minutes to explain and express. Set a time. When the timer buzzes, set it for five minutes more and go clean for five minutes. Or, use only 15 minutes to explain and express and clean for five minutes twice, or three times.
Kicking worry out only works if something else takes its place.
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