I must confess that I am, by nature or genetics, a world-class worrier.  I think I get it from my paternal grandmother whose picture should be on Wikipedia under worry.  That woman would get worried if she didn’t think she was worrying enough.  So, as a personal privilege, I’ll blame my world-class status on her. 

Now that I’ve found someone to blame, I can worry about other things.

A wise man once said that to worry about things you can change is foolish and to worry about those you can’t is futile.  This statement worries me . . .

Seriously, I’ve discovered that wasting too much brain space on the worry thing can be paralyzing.  We generally worry about what might happen, and then we worry about what we should do when it does; only to find that when what we worried about happens, our worry paralyzes us and we end up useless, helpless or worse.

I’ve found the Apostle Paul’s words very helpful:

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray.  Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.  Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.  Philippians 4:6-7  The Message

I think it’s a universal problem that we worry too much and pray too little.  Imagine what might happen if we swapped the two out.  What a great trade!  They are not significantly different tasks:  they are both usually done in private, they are both a conversation – the difference is that we have one with ourselves and the other with God.  Call me simple-minded but I gotta believe it does more good to talk to God.

So for the rest of you world-class worriers out there – and you know who you are and now you are worried that I know who you are – try making the big swap:  worry for prayer.  I challenge you to test it out and see “what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Seriously, give it a try and let me know what happens.  Don’t wait too long . . . I worry about you!

Pressing on toward the goal . . .

RevDrKid