“Don’t
worry about the world coming to an end today.
It’s already tomorrow in Australia.” ~ Charles
M. Schulz
Good
Morning!
This
quote by Peanuts creator Charles
M.
Schulz brings home two important points: (1) How quickly a day goes by,
and (2)
How unhelpful it is to spend time worrying.
Worrying
doesn’t feel good; it makes people anxious and stress-filled. So why do people worry?
Worrying, like many
negative emotions, is a defense mechanism.
We worry to protect ourselves from “what might
happen.” We worry in
order to avoid taking “the next step.” However, like many other defense
mechanisms, “worry” doesn’t protect us.
Instead, it creates a wall that blocks off
possibility. Worry
invites us to become immobile, to stay
still, and to wait “for a better time.”
Respected
biblical scholar Thomas S. Kepler wrote about a woman who realized that
her fears
were ruining her life. She began to
track her worries and discovered:
1. 40
percent of the things she worried about were about things that would
never
happen.
2. 30
percent of the things she worried about were about things that had
already happened
and were now water under the bridge.
3. 12
percent of the things she worried about were about others’ opinions. When she thought about that, she realized that criticisms are
often made by those that are
jealous or insecure, and there therefore unjust criticism is a
disguised
compliment.
4. 10
percent of the things she worried about were needless health worries,
which
only made her health worse as she worried.
5. 8
percent of the things she worried about were “legitimate,” since life
has some
real problems to meet.
These
statistics have been adapted by many psychologists and professionals as
a
fairly accurate analysis of worry breakdown.
Life
isn’t lived behind a wall. Life
is lived
out in the wide-open when we take chances and chase down dreams. When we use worry as a
wall in our world, we
not only block out our fear of “what might happen,” but we also block
out
possibility. If we
spend our time
worrying, we lose valuable time that could be spent on what we do want
to
happen in our lives.
Your
Turn: Where
have you been using worry to
hide from life? Take
a step toward knocking
down the wall of worry by choosing one area not to worry about at all. Direct your thoughts
toward possibilities
instead of limits. Break
down the wall
that worry builds to see how wonderful opportunity is on the other side.
Today’s
Affirmation: I climb over worry and into
joy.
