The other day I had a phone conversation with my Dad. Usually telephone conversations with my Dad are known for their brevity. My Dad isn’t given to much speech, and to be honest, hard though it may be to believe, neither am I. If I don’t have to talk, I won’t. I enjoy the quiet and there’s plenty of dialogue going on in my head to not spoil it with opening my mouth.
So this phone conversation was scheduled to be a short one. On this occasion, however, Dad spent a bit longer on the phone and used the conversation to encourage me in the Lord. I like it when Dad encourages me in the Lord. I remember that I owe my spiritual and character heritage to him and Mum, so when he chooses to use the time to remind me of who Jesus is and implications for life, it has an added significance because it’s coming from him. I don’t mind the cries of favouritism or whatever – I’m guilty on all counts. He’s allowed, he’s my Dad, I love him and he rocks.
Among the areas in which he encouraged me was the stand-by word with which he has always encouraged me in word and example since I’ve had a memory to remember. That sentiment is ‘why worry’?
That is obviously a rhetorical question, rather than a challenge to come up with legitimate reasons to worry. It only came out when I was years gone from home, that all in the family was not rosy especially financially, but that would never be reflected on my Dad’s features. That’s testament to him drinking the medicine he’s prescribing.
His very laid back and down-to-earth reasoning behind the sentiment was simple. If you can do something about it, then you should do it. If you cannot do anything about it, you are only making matters worse by worrying about it. By making matters worse, that means you are not in a good condition to deal with the issue because your state of anxiety was never created to be the right one to deal with these things.
Roughly two thousand years before my Dad said that to his eldest son, Jesus Himself was encouraging people in his much lauded Sermon on the Mount was telling people to take no thought over even the most fundamental basic things of life. His reasoning likewise was along the lines that by worrying we would not gain an inch in stature (not that getting taller would do anything, anyway unless your issue was a complex over your height).
The beauty of life is that in as much as my Dad and Jesus were saying these words over the years, it is the experiences of the life that flesh out the wisdom of the words and seeing the consequences of being one who worries has been a cursory warning for me, just in case I wasn’t listening.
Worrying shows a lack of faith in God. What anxiety expresses is that perhaps God cannot control this situation in a manner that will be ultimately glorifying to Him. Maybe something will go horribly wrong. If that something went horribly wrong then I won’t be able to cope and other bad stuff will happen. All of this is choking the reality of who God is in our lives and how supreme He remains above everything else.
Worrying occupies our minds in ways that are not constructive whatsoever. Rather than having done everything just standing, we are prancing about, moving out of place, looking for anything to give us consolation other than the very source of consolation itself. Those distracting qualities have a bearing on the key relationships around us as well as on our own health. Note as well, linked to the previously mentioned choking, that in the parable of the sower how in Jesus’ explanation of it He refers to the two elements that choke the life out of the plant as being both the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world. That is to say we are being unfruitful in fretting on issues in this world – worrying about Kingdom business is virtually an oxymoron. How can you worry about the establishment of the inevitable Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy? Where’s the worry there??
Ultimately worrying in not only being a lack of faith is essentially idolatry – for our worship in that expression is not of the one True God – like the people of Israel with Golden Calf we have chosen a substitute on which to pile on attention. Also like another tragic episode in the history of the nation of Israel, rather than depending on God, we entrust ourselves to others in the belief that they will certainly offer us the help we need.
As someone who has been caught worrying on the odd occasion, I can attest to the debilitating and fruitless nature of the exercise. My physical health has suffered because of it. Key relationships have definitely suffered for it. Performance levels at work have dropped over it. That’s just some of the negative effects of worrying. Witnessing it in others I have seen people who should be mature examples in Christ come out with the most tragic reactions to trying situations that remind me again that my hope and trust really must remain in Jesus.
Having established all the bad there is in worry, what’s a solution? Find out in tomorrow’s post.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 