Saying "No" to Worry

[caption id="attachment_170993" align="aligncenter" width="1180"] Image by Dương Nhân (2018), Pexels.com, CC0/PD[/caption]

Maybe you don’t worry. Maybe you don’t find yourself wondering “What if …” If you’re that kind of person, please reach out with your advice! On the other hand, if you’re like me and you find a little voice often whispering “Just wait. The other shoe will drop,” or “What if the grocery stores run out of food -- how will you feed your kids,” will you join me in a conversation about worry?

Outside of the current pandemic worries, one of my biggest worries is that something that something will happen to me medically and my children will have to call 911. The idea of traumatizing them in that experience, keeps me up at night. I’m a healthy person for the most part, so this is a pretty unfounded worry, but my fears came true a few weeks ago when I passed out and my family had to call 911. The doctors attributed the episode to dehydration (make sure you’re drinking half your body weight in water) but also told me that people are just going through a lot right now, so they’re not totally sure what caused it.

I had a big realization that day. As the paramedics were wheeling me on a stretcher, out of my house, I realized that my biggest fear was coming true. I told my children I was going to the doctor to find out what happened. When I got back home, I checked in with them to see how they were feeling about the experience. Some admitted to being scared when it happened but were excited that they got a tour of the fire truck after (thank you first responders) and one child admitted they were too concerned about something going on with them and that it didn’t really affect them. I’m sure there could be underlying effects and they were walking on eggshells around me for the next few days, but we all moved past it and the world didn’t end!

So what do the experts say about worry? Padre Pio tells us, "Pray, hope and don't worry." The Bible asks us the poignant question in Matthew 6:27, “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?” It goes on to remind us in verse 34, “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.” And yet somehow I still worry.

I've been contemplating worry and its benefits. We're in the process of selling our house and moving to a different state, in the middle of this pandemic (that’s another blog for another day!). We had found a house we really liked and had a walk-through scheduled for the next day. I woke up in the middle of the night and worrying that the house would go into escrow before we had a chance to look at it. Then it dawned on me. It was 3 AM. My worrying about whether or not someone else was going to make an offer on the house had no actual impact on whether or not someone actually did. There was absolutely nothing I could do about the escrow of the house. Nothing I realized in terms of paperwork but I could of take the worry I had and place it the hands of God.

I had just listened to an episode of the Abiding Together podcast that mentioned how sometimes in our frustration, we throw our problems at God instead of placing them in His hands. It was a beautiful idea of gently passing our worries in His hands instead of throwing them at Him in anger. I believe the point they were getting at is that God will take our problems either way, but how we give them to Him impacts how we feel about the worry about and impacts the extent to which we relinquish control.

When I start to worry, I'm going to stop and ask myself if I can do anything about the issue. If I can, then I'll take those steps; if I can't, then I'm going to place it in God's hand.

[tweet "Will you join me? Will you practice moving past the worry stage into action?"]

Will you join me? Will you access the reality of your worry? Will you practice moving past the worry stage into action? And finally will you practice gently placing the unresolved issues into the hands of the Lord? Share with me how the process goes for you! After all when we hold each other up, we work together to bring each other to the Lord.

Copyright 2020 Courtney Vallejo