Why do we worry? We worry because every day we are subjected to situations beyond our control. We have our cars serviced but it doesn’t guarantee that we won’t find ourselves on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. We visit our doctors regularly but it doesn’t guarantee that we will not fall victim to sickness or disease. We may be secure in our jobs but there’s no guarantee that our job will always be there …and on and on it goes.
Moreover, we live in very uncertain times. Evil people have always existed but today they have access to advanced technologies which enable them to terrorize and destroy a multitude of innocent people. There is more greed and corruption today than ever before. Our climate seems to be out of control and many of us fear losing everything we have in a moment of time, not to mention our lives or the lives of those we love. When it comes to the weather or weather-related events, no one can be fully prepared.
However, most of us can look back on situations that caused us serious anxiety which actually turned out fine. Mark Twain once said, “I’ve had a lot of troubles in my life, most of which never happened.”
Do we think worry has power? Do we think we can worry something away? Jesus asked, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”
Of course, it’s difficult to have this attitude when you’re in a waiting room while the doctor is determining whether or not your loved one can live through the operation. This type of worry is not the issue. The issue here is typical day to day situations like when the car is making a weird noise or the check engine light is on, or there’s a rumor at work that some employees are going to be laid off, and so on.
It’s only natural to worry about such things even though they turn out many times to be nothing at all. For instance, you hear a noise coming from the rear of your car on the way to work. Car repairs can be quite expensive. You’ve already had to pay out a small fortune for a previous emergency and now this! All the way to work you worry yourself sick about what to do, how much it’s going to cost, and how you’re going to pay for it.
Nevertheless, when you get to work and take a look beneath the car you notice a rather large branch wedged underneath your rear bumper. You pull it out- problem solved. You had sufficient reason to worry and were grateful that it was only a branch but the anxiety you suffered drained you mentally, physically, and emotionally, making your work day even more difficult.
All of us go through these types of situations that cause us to worry. Some turn out to be nothing while others turn out to be what we feared or even worse. What we must learn is to realize that life has its ups and downs and we simply can’t be prepared for every “down” that life throws our way. We must also realize that not every “down” situation is a life or death circumstance but is just an annoying setback.
In view of the fact that we will be facing many of these “down” situations during our lifetime we need to learn how to cope with the anxiety they can cause. Our attitude should be “This too shall pass” and simply deal with it the best we can then move on.
Anxiety is a killer.
