Words of Wisdom - Part 3

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matthew 6:25-27 ESV). Tragically many people worry so much about what might happen tomorrow that they lose the joy of today! Someone has said that people gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross. It just another way of saying that we worry too much about things that are not necessary. Things can get awfully bad. The following list comes from a list titled “You know it’s going to be a bad day when…” You wake up face down on the pavement. You call Suicide Prevention and they put you on hold. You see a “60 Minutes” news team waiting in your office. Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles. You turn on the news and they’re showing emergency routes out of the city. Your twin sister forgot your birthday. Your car horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of Hell’s Angels on the freeway. Your boss tells you not to bother to take off your coat. The bird singing outside your window is a buzzard. You wake up and your braces are locked together. You call your answering service and they tell you it’s none of your business. Your income tax check bounces. You put both contact lenses in the same eye. Your wife says, “Good morning, Bill,” and your name is George. Now that is BAD! But the truth still remains; worry is counterproductive and destructive in our lives. We are inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. We are so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. We may live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. A John Hopkins University doctor says, “We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact.” But I, who am simple of mind, think I know; We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality. Connie Mack was one of the greatest managers in the history of baseball. One of the secrets of his success was that he knew how to lead and inspire men. Mack had another secret of good management: he didn’t worry. “I discovered,” he explained, “that worry was threatening to wreck my career as a baseball manager. I saw how foolish it was and I forced myself to get so busy preparing to win games that I had no time left to worry over the ones that were already lost. You can’t grind grain with water that has already gone down the creek.” Stop gathering bundles of sticks to build bridges you’ll never cross! Stop living “just in case” and start living by faith!