Learning to Live Without Worry

I’ve decided that worrying is a terrible thing and it really does no good, and this past Saturday night was a good example of it’s futility.

Last week I finished a new design for our church badges - something that will be used by staff, Deacons, ushers, greeters and volunteers. Bonnie, Chris and Emily all reviewed the design and it was approved. The remaining task is to print them but the special paper we need

Janet Starkey

won’t arrive until early March. There was no pressure to move forward … except there was … by me. So I dreamed and fretted most of the night about how I was going to get Pastor Craig and Bonnie their new badges in time for church Sunday morning. I actually had a nightmare! Needless to say, this worry got me nowhere other than a very restless night.

In the big picture, in any picture for that matter, this worry was completely inconsequential. This is simply an example of how trivial things can take on an undeserved life. It wasn’t based on anything real but for some reason, in my mind, it was very real. What it did do was remind me of the chapter ‘Learning to Live 

Without Worry’ in James Bryan Smith’s The Good and Beautiful Life. James goes to great lengths to distinguish between caution and worry. ‘Despite their similarity, worry is not the same as being cautious or careful’. He goes on to write ‘Worry is a disproportionate level of concern based on an inappropriate measure of fear’. So how do we get there … regularly to an inappropriate measure of fear? That’s certainly what I experienced last night and it did nothing but rob me of a good night’s sleep.

So this morning I asked myself why I didn’t take a deep breath and pray?

Paul writes in Philippians 4:6-7: ‘Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises chase 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.’

Chase me into prayer and settle me down, Lord.

In His Name, Janet