Worrying

Corrie ten Boom wrote the following in her "Clippings from my Notebook". A journal she kept.
Corrie and her sister were imprisoned by the Nazi's for hiding Jewish people from the inevitable slaughter in World War 11.

"Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength - carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of ts strength."

Pretty simple but powerful words especially when put into the light of today's world with everything going haywire and topsy turvy.

Jesus, too, was pretty emphatic when He talked about WORRY in the Sermon on the Mount recorded for us in Matthew 6: 28-34. In our Australian Bible study on twitter on a Wednesday night we have been slowly going through the whole of Jesus' teaching on these passages and the whole 'sermon on the mount' is just so relevant to today.

What is worry anyway? Well before we go into that just lets say that worry is an exercise in futility - it achieves nothing, zero, nada! Worry refers to the negatives in life - it is images of what 'could be' and dwells on the emotions like nothing else can. Worry drives people to suicide, marriage breakups and the ruination of family and friends.

As we have progressed through our Aussie study we have looked at what Jesus actually says about worry and how he warns us of the sheer futility of it.

Jesus says in Mathew 6:25 that worry is wrong - He tells us not to worry about things here on earth - and not to be worry about our life and how we will survive not to worry about our clothes or our food because He has promised to meet our basic material needs.

That's fine I hear you say but you have no idea what we are going through at the moment or what lies ahead of any of us. I truly appreciate what you are saying and just let me add this. Not so long when our Granddaughter was born we noticed she had a very slight turn in her eye - as it turned out the slight turn in her eye was far more serious than any of us first thought. Since then we have discovered that she is almost blind in that eye and has numerous operations to remove tumours growing behind her eye and down through the nasal passage.

Were we worried?  Through this time we threw ourselves into the arms of our lord - and just let me say this - WORRY DOESN'T MEAN NOT TO BE CONCERNED! Of course we were concerned and we continue to be concerned as the outcome is certainly not cut and dried and it won't be for many many years to come.

But does worry help at all in a situation like this? - No definitely not - all the worry we do doesn't help one iota in the outcome of such uncertainty. There is a difference in concern and worry.

Concern drives us to prayer, and helping as much as we can - thinking outside of the box and being creative in ways to help carry the burdens - Worry on the other hand drives us to hand-wringing and heart wrenching - isolation and despair with no possible good outcome. If we let worry run it's course it will cause anxiety and eventually depression.

Worry is involved solely in the ME while concern is involved in the WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?

Worry is actually a sin - it's because we have stopped focusing on God as ruler of our lives and throned ourselves there instead - We have become the MOST important person. - Worry is all about ME.

Worry has no end - its is a continuum - it is everlasting - we can't actually analyse worry - there is no answer - no final end - its like a big fat blanket thrown over our heads so that we can't escape  - so different to concern.

So here is the thing - if you are a worrier.  Each day is a gift, a real gift from God. In Matthew 6 Jesus says
1) Don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself.
2) Each day has enough trouble of it's own.
Pretty astounding words really.

If we worry and stew about tomorrow - where will it end? We have endless tomorrows - Jesus is saying here each day brings it's own set of crisis and if we start to think about tomorrow's crisis and the next day and the next day it will only add burden after burden to today.

Take each day as real gift from God and care for today's problems today - care about tomorrow's problems then not now. Leave tomorrow where it is - Tomorrow! God has promised to see us through and he will.

Sure, there are going to be horrible things happen: I remember so well when SueAnn was diagnosed with cancer - would have been so easy to have thrown in the towel - curl up in foetal position and 'will' the world away - becoming depressed and isolated in our own little world of sorrow. Would all the worrying in the world have helped us through this crisis? Definitely NO!

Of course we were concerned and we fell to our knees amid tears and heartbreak - but not worry! Concern and REAL concern was our cry - regardless of the outcome we had to pass through it and not make it a lifestyle.

So where are you on the 'worry scale'? Don't let worry define your life - God and he alone gives you the strength you need when you need it. He will give us all the strength we need to face each day - Live as God ordained each day - one after the other. let's not bound ahead, who knows what is just around the corner.