Evangelize To Me: What? Me Worry?

I have come to the realization that I must love worry a lot, because I spend so much time doing it. The things we choose to do repeatedly are the things we truly love, right?

How about a show of hands for worry—who loves worry? Something tells me nobody is going to raise any hands in here. I’m sure not going to do it. So how do I explain my attraction to the endless churning over my actions? Of course, I don’t stop there. I’ll be happy to worry about what you really meant when you said that to me.

I should hire out, I do this so well.

Worry, worry, worry. Worry has to be the most destructive of things that I do. What exactly does it accomplish? Have I ever had a break-through moment as the result of fixating on a problem? No sir.

I need a little clarity here.

Worry is most often a prideful way of thinking that you have more control over life and its circumstances than you actually do.

What an interesting idea. Worry can actually be an example of self-sufficiency gone viral. This is definitely a possibility for me. I was educated as a nurse, and I like precise and textbook answers to life’s little nagging problems. If there just aren’t any obvious answers, I get a little panicky. There must be an answer somewhere….I know! I’ll get acid reflux worrying about it! (A full twenty percent of the US population has acid reflux, so we can’t all be wrong.)

But what I really need to do is act when I can, then let it go into the arms of God. I do not have ultimate control over anything. Big shock, I know. The Lord set up life this way so I’d learn how to rely on him, not on my own understanding.

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Jesus certainly gets down to the meat of the issue. He was not ambiguous in the face of human misery. He knows that I’m a worrier. Jesus also sees me as I am, the child of the Father. It’s hard to see the kids worry, isn’t it?

The Lord sees me in my distress. It hurts his heart to see me twist in the wind, grasping for solutions to problems that are not mine to find. And honestly, there usually isn’t a problem at all. It’s just my overactive love of producing stomach acid taking me over again.

Time for me to see worry for what it is. A distracting, self-absorbed heartache for me and for Jesus.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; whom shall I dread? When those who do evil draw near, they stumble and fall.
Psalm 27:1-2

Thank you King David. I needed that. And back into my week I go. Reset the score clock between worry and me. I’m preparing for an epic comeback.