For pity's sake, don't start meeting troubles halfway. ~ St. Teresa of Avila
If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. ~ Robert Fulghum
Matthew 6:25-34
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?' or "What will we drink?' or "What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today." (NRSV)
These sayings from St. Teresa of Avila and Robert Fulghum speak to an ever common issue in our daily Christian walk...worry! I want today and tomorrow to speak to this issue in our lives. Today I want to speak about the kind of worry which Jesus was specifically addressing -- excessive, debilitating worry. All of us worry to some degree and worry can even be constructive as it leads us to right decisions and actions. Excessive worry, however, is never good.
Biblical scholars tell us that the Aramaic word Jesus uses for "worry" literally means, "to choke or to strangle."Thus, it seems quite clear that Jesus is not speaking about worry in general, but rather about worries which we allow to choke us mentally, emotionally, physically, even spiritually. He is addressing the kind of worry which gets to our hearts and minds in such a way as to be detrimental to our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
With that understanding in mind let me describe for you what I consider to be excessive, debilitating, unhealthy worry:
- You let the issue continually get to you. You can't sleep; you think about it way too much; your stomach is in constant knots; you increasingly feel mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. In this regard Jesus speaks a significant truth when he says, And who of you by worrying about it can add a single hour to his life? Not only will unchecked worry not lengthen and strengthen your life; it very well may shorten it.
- You give up thinking about solutions or positive possibilities. You focus almost entirely on the problem or the issue or the projected impending disaster and don't expend enough energy looking at other options than just worrying about it.
- You let the worry affect your relations with others. You're routinely moody, impatient, testy, hard to get along with, reactive, unwilling to let others talk with you about it as you're convinced they can't and won't help.
While worry is normal for us human beings, Jesus is quite clear that we must guard against excessive, unchecked worry. Our God who ever walks the path of life with us is ready to help us!!
Tomorrow I will offer some antidotes for battling worry!
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