Worrying - Am I addicted to it?

“Worrying never does anyone any good at all.” I think that’s a safe statement to make, right? So why can’t we human beings stop doing it? Sometimes I think we (me included) INVENT things to worry about, just so we can worry. Are we addicted to it?

What are you and I doing when we’re worrying over something? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “causing anxiety about actual or potential problems, or something alarming.” I think the interesting word in that definition might be “potential.” That implies you may be worrying about things that haven’t happened yet or may not even happen at all. Think about that for a second. We are worrying about things that may or may not happen at all.

Worrying - it doesn't do us any good at all. We still do it anyway

A devotional in “Our Daily Bread” talked about a woman who had lived a long time and came to an interesting realization near the end of her days. “I’ve lived a long time and had a lot of trouble,” she said, “most of which never happened.”

Worrying is fear extravagantly showing off and extracting interest on trouble before the payment comes due.

Living with worry is impossible. I know I can’t carry worry on my own because I’m not strong enough. God is more than happy to give us His strength to get through these sometimes-ridiculous days of 2020. If we are worrying about the things facing us, it’s highly likely that we aren’t asking God for help getting through the ups and downs.

Focus on the things above would appear at that point to be a much more productive way to spend your time. Where is your focus? Mine has spent too much time focusing on the 24-hour news cycle and the constant belittlement of each other on social media.

Let me tell you another story about a guy named J. Arthur Rank, an English executive who made the unusual decision to do all his worrying on one day each week. He chose Wednesdays. When anything happened that gave him anxiety and annoyed his ulcer, he wrote it down on a piece of paper and put it in his “worry box.” After that, he forgot about it until Wednesday.

The interesting thing was that on the following Wednesday when he opened his so-called worry box, he found that most of the things that had disturbed him the past six days had already been settled. It would have been completely useless to worry about those things.

I’ve heard it said that the Bible says “Do not worry” 365 times. One for every day of the year, right? I look at that kind of symmetry, and I’m convinced it’s not a coincidence. Matthew 6:27 says, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” No, we can’t, but what happens when we get confronted by the realities of this broken world we live in?

Let me offer an example. I just found out two of my sons have both been hit by COVID-19. They’re not feeling well, obviously, but with a more than 99 percent survival rate, I think they’ll be okay. I’m more worried about their grandparents, who are both in their 70s. One of the sick boys lives with them because it’s close to where he goes to school. It’s a well-known fact that COVID has been brutal on the senior citizen population. We aren’t ready to lose either of them yet.

Let’s take it a step further. One of those two sons is having tests done on a kidney as some readings are outside of normal levels. I was told today that he’ll either have to take a medication to get his levels back in the normal range, or he may have stage two cancer. IS THAT ALL?

It’s where the rubber meets the road when it comes to faith. Do I or don’t I believe God and the things he says in the Word? Of course, I do. There have been moments today where I’ve had to remind myself at least once a minute that God is IN CONTROL, and He IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS.

It’s not taking the fear away. But it is making it easier to move forward, knowing that we won’t face things alone.

One last story for you, and I’ll shut up. Several years ago, my oldest son was suddenly stricken with spinal meningitis. He was in agony. If you’ve ever heard your child screaming in mortal agony because they were in so much pain, you know it’s something you never forget.

He spent several days in the hospital and wasn’t getting a lot better. I was stressed. A young father who feared losing his son more than anything. I was driving into Watertown, South Dakota, on the way to work and crying in the car. Finally, I said to the Lord, “if it’s your time to call him home, then I give him to you. I trust you with my son, just like you gave us yours.” It felt as though a large boulder just rolled off my shoulders.

I kid you not when I say this: when I got to the hospital, my son was sitting up in bed while eating and feeling a little better. The moment I released him to the Lord, he evidently began to feel better. I think there’s a huge lesson there we all need to remember.

God is in control.