Worry

Sometimes I worry that I worry too much.

I go through seasons in my life where I am anxious and uptight.

Especially when a crisis comes along.

We all worry about something.

Why?  Because worry is essentially a contort issue.

Worry is trying to control the uncontrollable.

We can't control our health - so we worry about our health.

We can't control our jobs, so we worry about our jobs.

We can't control our economy, so we worry about the economy.

We can't control our children, so we worry about our children.

We can't control the future, so we worry about the future.

The root English word for "worry" literally  means "to choke or strangle."  That's what happens when we worry.

We choke off the life of God in our lives.  We become emotionally bound.

We strangle the joy out of our lives.

The Greek word in the Bible for worry literally means, "a divided mind."

It is this tug of war going on in your mind.

Here's what I know:  Peace is not an absence of problems.  It is the presence of a thankful, grateful heart that can see beyond the problem.

It is the testimony of a man about to die of cancer in 3 months who writes his Thanksgiving letter to his friends with these words:  "I am thankful not for what I have, but who has me."

That is somebody who understands peace.

William Booth, was the founder (with his wife, Catherine) of the Salvation Army.

One of his biographers tells of the day when the General was in his eighties.  He was ill and had been to see a doctor.  It was left to his son, Bramwell, to tell him that he would soon be blind.

"You mean that I am going blind?"

"Well, General, I fear that we must contemplate that," said Bramwell, who along wit the family had always addressed their father by that affectionate name.

There was a pause while Booth thought over what he had been told.

And then the father asked the son, "I shall never see your face again?"

"No, probably not in this world" was the son's reply.

The biographer writes, "During the next few moments the veteran's hand crept along the counterpane to take hold of his son's, and holding it, he said very calmly, "God must know best."

And after another pause, "Bramwell, I have done what I could for God and for the people with my eyes.  Now I shall do what I can for God and for the people without my eyes."

Life can throw all of us some very, very hurtful things.

Sometimes all we can do is to trust in God, know that He is in control, and "set our face like flint" as it says in Isaiah.  (Isaiah 50:7)