Are You A Worry Wart?

“Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.”  I Peter 5:7

People are weird.  We worry about all sorts of things that we have no control over, and we also worry if we are not worried about something.  When things are going good and our problems are minor, we just know that something is going to go wrong.  Am I right?  If we truly believe that God is sovereign and controls everything, whether it is changing a bad situation or allowing it to happen, why do we worry?  Most of the stuff we worry about never happens, and things destined to happen are going to happen whether we worry about them or not.  However, it seems that worry is one of the most difficult traits to overcome.

Anxiety, that is, uneasiness and apprehension, sends more folks to the doctor’s office or into the hospitals than we could ever imagine.  I remember years ago I used to get really bad migraine headaches.  I would be at work, and something would happen or be said that would upset me (and it didn’t even have to involve me), and my head would start hurting within minutes.  Feeling out of control about a situation can also bring on anxiety because we humans are prone to want to be in control of whatever is going on in our lives.  We let our imaginations run away with us conjuring up all kinds of “what ifs” and looking for the worst possible outcome.

Another source of anxiety and worry is guilt.  If we have done something that causes us to feel guilty, then we worry that someone will find out.  We do whatever is necessary to hide our mistake or indiscretion, but it usually turns out that, as they say, the cover up is worse than the crime.  We end up with a headache, a stomachache, or some other physical ailment because the health of the body is definitely affected by the mind.  To alleviate those types of worries, the best thing to do is to confess and repent.  There was a certain President years ago who tried to cover up his sin, but if he had just confessed it up front and asked forgiveness of the American people, the whole matter likely could have ended sooner rather than later.  He is left with the legacy of his indiscretion rather than known for being humble and contrite, much more becoming personality traits than arrogance and impudence.

To lighten up the subject, you may find this a little amusing, but Webster’s Dictionary, the one I have from my college years, gives the primary definition for the word “worry” as “to harass or treat roughly with or as with continual biting or tearing with the teeth; as, the old dog was ‘worrying’ an old shoe.”  The second definition is “to annoy; pester; bother”.  It is not until the third definition that we see the meaning as the one with which we are most familiar: “to cause to feel troubled or uneasy or to be anxious”.  Maybe we should all take a hint from that old dog.  Instead of being anxious, maybe we should harass or attack those worries with some serious prayer, and sic the worry dog on that old devil!