​Blog 566 – 03.09.2017
How To Stop Worrying

Mad Magazine was founded in 1932 and its perpetual front cover mascot Alfredo E. Newman’s philosophy in a few words is, “What me worry.” Even as a boy I thought that a pretty good philosophy. My mother was a world-class worrier and my dad was not, of the two dad was hands down the more happy. Mark Twain said, “Worrying is like paying a debt you do not owe.” He knew a lot about debt as he incurred a tremendous debt late in life to help out a dear friend. He had to do another strenuous world wide lecture tour to pay off that debt. Money was not always in abundance in my Mama’s life and to make matters worse in Mark Twain’s words she was always paying on a debt she did not owe.

The most comforting thing about the story of Jesus is that he came to pay a debt he did not owe to deliver us from a debt we do not owe. I saw a little motto on a small cedar plaque once that said, “Worrying is assuming God’s responsibility.” That is what we do everytime we judge others or ourselves or worry we assume a role, a job that was never intended to be ours. Jesus once said to those Jew boys that hung out with him, “Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow. They toil not. They spin not, but I say unto you, that Solomon in all of His glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Great teachers always say the important stuff more than once and from a different angle so we are more likely to “get it.” Just two verses earlier Jesus said, “Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?”

The way to stop worrying is to start trusting. All of our worries stem from believing the first lie – that God, the Universe is not good with our highest and best always in mind. I will not argue the point with you but rather conclude this little blog on how to stop worrying with the words of a song by Bob Marley that I have committed to memory, “Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing’s gonna be alright.” In the song he woke up in the morning with three little birds singing sweetly that message to him. I hope you hear it to from the lillies of the field, the fowl of the air, but even more from your own heart. “Fear not for I am with you.” You are never alone and you can relax, He has this. Why, He even does your breathing for you and for me from the first one. Think about that, Worrywart.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White