Worry

I’m trying to decide if I should start worrying about whether or not I should worry. The dictionary says worry is feeling undue care and anxiety, and while that is a good definition—after all, it made its way into the dictionary—who’s to say when feeling anxious becomes “undue”? Is carrying a little care okay?

While Dianne and I were on the road recently to visit family, we listened to one of Malcolm Smith’s messages. Malcolm says worry is fearing that God is not sufficient. I think he is onto something.

Although the Bible doesn’t talk much about worry, God does devote a number of verses in His Book to anxiety. Perhaps the most familiar is Paul’s exhortation, “Be anxious for nothing.”

Jesus delivered the Bible’s lengthiest and most compelling discussion on anxiety during his sermon on the mount: “Do not be anxious for your life, for what you will eat, what you will drink, or what you will wear. Consider the birds. Think about the flowers. Your Father watches over the birds, clothes the flowers, and cares more for you than He does for either birds or flowers. Why be anxious?”

Reading that makes any anxiety sound pointless.

That seems idealistic, doesn’t it? The fact is, we live in a fallen, tumultuous, and dangerous world. In fact, as I peruse the social media, and read columns and books, I’m struck by the opinions purporting that we live in the most terrible time in history.

Is that true? If it is, then we are the most pitiful people to ever live. Hmm.

I have some thoughts about this… but not before my next blog. I’m still trying to decide if I should worry or not.