Saturday, March 26, 2011

More about worry

Some of my friends are worried about me since I posted about waking up worrying.

Worrying is an unhealthy, useless waste of time.  And, for those of us who (try to) follow Jesus and the teachings in the Bible, it is a sin.

But it is also not something that anyone (or I, at least) set out to do.  The worries come unbidden.  Who wakes up and decides to think, say, "what if we have to move and our house doesn't sell?"   Or "Gah!  We don't have a decent science project for our homeschool portfolio yet!"

Not I! I'd rather wake up with a feeling of happy anticipation for the day, thankful for a good night's sleep.

So we have to fight the worry with prayer. We can know that God is sovereign and still have those worries creep in.  We can understand that if God wants us to move He will work out such mundane details as selling a house.  He might not make it real easy, or as quick as we'd like.  But it'll happen. We can know that both intellectually and in our hearts.  We aren't worrying on purpose.

I think in general Christians are harder on people about worry than nonChristians.  (Broad generalization; don't assume I'm talking about you!)  So many times I've expressed a concern to someone - someone who asks how things are going or if there is any way they can pray for me, not just some random person I've decided to spill my guts to  - and they send me off with a breezy little platitude:  "Just trust and obey!"  "Oh, follow God's leading and you'll be fine!"  "As long as you're in God's will, He will take care of you!"    Well, OK then!  Thanks for asking.

One of the best Bible verses for worriers is John 14:1.  Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me."  One of my Facebook friends had that up in her status yesterday and though it is a very familiar verse, it was good to see it.  It is the perfect verse for worriers - those who worry on purpose and those who have their worries thrust upon them, unwelcome, in the early hours of the morning.

Update:  After typing "worry" so many time, I've come to realize I should have titled this post "What, me worry?"  And I have this urge to read a Mad Magazine...

1 comment:

Sandy said...

I think he who has never had a worried thought should cast the first stone, or in this case, give the first lecture. No, we shouldn't worry and yes, I agree it's a sin. But being tempted to worry is not. Christian platitudes don't help anyone and I'd be happy to never hear another one of them.