“You’re not well-rounded unless you’re bipolar.” -Joe
There are many tangled messes that other people are in, from which I would like to extricate them. (Mainly because I enjoy using the word extricate.) I know, however, that if the same habits, thought-patterns, etc., remain, there will soon be another mess just like (or worse than) the first.
I do no one a favor by fixing a problem that isn’t mine, not to mention that I usually can’t fix it in the first place.
But I really like to worry. And I really, really like to worry about other people’s problems.
It’s so easy, so habitual for me to pick up worry and carry it around. It’s kind of like a security blanket. Big, comforting, and gets in the way. Slows me down. I’m always dragging it in the dirt and ending up with a whole trail of mud and dead leaves behind me…
The Problem with Worry
Worry is based on pride. If we would get it into our heads that we are minute little creatures, much too small and insignificant to be trusted with the things we worry about, we could just happily and humbly live our lives in peace, trusting that someone big enough (GOD) will take care of the big stuff.
We just don’t like admitting how little we are. We don’t like not knowing. We don’t like trusting. It’s uncomfortable. What if things don’t turn out the way we want them to?
A Misuse of Imagination
Worry is the misuse of imagination. The imagination was made to “see” God in everything, to see the greater reality behind our physical world.
Worry uses our imagination to take us into the land that is not; it has no existence in reality. It is a world of deception. We call it tomorrow. We get there by asking “What if…?” In the Land That Is Not, God has no existence. But in reality, God exists; God is in the here and now.
-A. Gene Veal, Single Vision Ministries
Have You Forgotten God?
Mr. Veal goes on:
Worry is unbelief. Worry does not merit sympathy but rebuke.
Our anxieties and fears arise out of a lifestyle in which we have forgotten God.
Unbelief says
…God doesn’t love me.
…God isn’t in control.
…God doesn’t know or understand.
…God isn’t working it all for good.
Unbelief says
…I have to take care of myself.
…I’m in control.
…I need a plan.
Find the Cure: Communicate.
Start spilling: tell God what you want, then at least you’ll have the peace of knowing that He knows. (Yes, okay, you can say He knows anyway, but there’s something about the conscious choice of sharing what you think and feel that is important. Quit making Him read your mind all the time; start talking instead. It’s better for you.)
Number your days. How many do you have? One. Today. Yesterday and tomorrow don’t exist. Only today is given to you.
Does God enjoy taking care of us moment by moment, day by day? I think He does. I think it delights Him when we present our requests and then go merrily along, doing “ye next thinge” without fear, trusting that He will grant what is needed when it is needed.
once again, fabulous post! I’ll have to print this one out and read it again and again