the opposite of worry.

2014, Day 51.

My friend Cassie asked me to talk to her middle school small group about worry. I spent a lot of time thinking about worry, and I stumbled upon this idea:

It is so easy to think that not worrying means not caring, to imagine a life where everything rolls off and we confront problems with a “hang loose” sign and nod as we pass them. Jesus never told us to not care. On the contrary, I’d say that Jesus cared about things a LOT. He cared about the right things, though.

The trick to “do not worry….” isn’t “do not care,” but it is to find peace in the midst of our troubles. There is a place where our worry lays itself to rest in the peace of Christ and we can see that the sleeping giant is not so scary at the feet of Jesus.

3 ways I combat worry:

• One simple question: can I do anything about it?
  This is the most important question I ask myself when I find worry creeping in. If the answer is yes, then I must immediately (or as soon as possible) make an action towards solving the problem. If the answer is no, I have to let it go. With the kids at my church, if I tell them to “let it go,” or “drop it,” I have them catch their problem in their hand and on the count of 3, throw it on the ground. Sometimes we just have to throw our problems on the ground.
• Figure out where the worry is coming from. 
  Ben Rector sings, “sometimes the devil sounds a lot like worry treading a well-worn path into my soul.”* I think most of us worry about the same handful of things, but wearing different masks. We worry about situations arising that prove the worst thoughts we have about ourselves. If we take the time to figure out why certain things bother us, the beast shrinks because suddenly we’re not dealing with 40 different kinds of worry, but really 3 different things heightened by certain situations.
• Remember what God has done in the past.
  Jesus said “do not worry about tomorrow.” If God is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever, then all we have to do is look backwards at our life and the years of recorded history we have and see how God has pulled through in times of trouble. When we worry, we are like 11 year old girls insisting on driving on the freeway and forcing our Father to sit in the backseat and not say anything. We take control of things that are too much for us. God never asked us to figure life out on our own. He’s not a “push you in and teach you to swim” kind of God, standing on the edge while we flail around hopelessly. He is the pool that holds the water. He is the water in the pool. and he is in the pool, arms stretched out, calling us by name to take a jump right into him. Sometimes we forget all that he is, and how carefully he has crafted each day he stands expectantly in. Gratitude lists are great for remembering the ways God has blessed you.

*If You Can Hear Me, from The Walking Inbetween. One of my favorite Ben Rector songs of all time. It gets me right in the heart.