Silliness of Worrying
It is that dull gnawing ache in the pit of your stomach that won’t let up, it is the reason for your sweaty palms, it is what spurns your heart to beat faster till you feel your chest can no longer contain it, and it is what keeps your thoughts racing around at dizzying speeds till you feel there is no hope left. Worry.
It seems so easy to write worry off today, look at the world around us; have you seen a newspaper, heard what they are talking about continually 24 hours a day 7 days a week, the dow is down (no clue what that means, but its bad), unemployment is soaring with more layoffs to come, nationalized health care is a vote away, swine flu will wipe out tens of thousands…. And it goes on not excluding of course the every day worries that seem to crop up. In fact it would be crazy not to worry!
Yet still I am reminded my God is a loving God. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
It’s Monday not my favorite day of the week, it could in fact be my least favorite, and while I am to begin another workweek on this particular Monday I also had a dentist appointment, my first one in a year and a half. The appointment was early in the morning, let’s just get it done and over with! As I get in my car and push the key into the ignition an ache in my stomach appears. Not overly pronounced, but there. I merge onto the highway my palms slip from the steering wheel damp from sweat. I pull into the parking lot and release a breath I did not know I was holding. I take a step into the dental office and am assaulted by the smell of antiseptic and stale cleaning fluids my pulse jumps, I want nothing more than to run away.
I don’t know many people who like going to the dentist, but for me it seems every time I go there is something wrong, and the dentist gives me a look that says it all I will single handedly be putting their kids through college. I begin to fill out the forms that all new patients must fill out, my handwriting barely legible. I finish and they take me to get x-rays, they’re quick I’ll give them that. Than I wait, in that awkward dental chair with the lights over head that give the atmosphere a more interrogational feel (where were you on the night in question kind of stuff…)_. The dentist comes in and he seems nice, and begins his work up poking here, scraping there my hands clenched in my lap. “Lord I pray just let everything be fine.” He pulls down his mask, and I brace for the news, “Well your teeth look good he says.” Really?! In that instant I smiled, it is such a little thing but I can’t help think that even had their been major work needed my God would have been there, but it was nice for once to have a good report. I am a child of the most high God of things big and of things small.
I tend to worry a lot I am a chief worrier. I stand in church and sing songs about giving my life over to God about putting my trust in Him, praising the creator of the universe. And yet still I worry, oh the silliness of worrying. What a foolish thing to do. Jesus in His sermon on the mount said:
“ 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? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow they neither toil nor spin and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear For after all these things the Gentiles seek for you heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:25-34
It is so easy to get caught up in worrying to be overwhelmed by what the world is saying (the sky always seems to be falling), to be anxious even over the smallest of things, how easy we forget (how easy I forget) who our Father is. Over and over again in the Bible it states trust the Lord, lean not on your own understanding. That’s the key. It is not us, but it is HIM “Cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (paraphrased read the full passage) I need not worry for I am my Father’s child, He will provide, He will protect me, He loves me.
