Axing anxiety (sorry for the needless alliteration)
Aren’t you glad Neil is such a black-and-white thinker? Leave it to him to write us a formula to make us not worry! Wow!
Okay, now that we’ve roasted him just a little, I’m wondering if the list he’s given really works.
First, you have to want to get rid of your worry. I’ve learned that there are worriers who are really attached to their worry. They have an argument to counter any logic you might offer to help them, and it seems like they are just determined to be really, really miserable. What’s the axiom? Beware of helping someone who doesn’t want to be helped.
Now, for the rest of us who actually don’t like worry (or who maybe did, but are ready and willing for a change), what a great place to start.
Even the abstract thinker I am, I have found myself in the midst of a worry-storm, and my method was this: What’s the worst that can happen here? Can I live with that? If so, then I don’t really need to stay up at night…
Less than a year after we moved into our house, I was in a car accident, and consequently sued by the other driver. We were told (and I don’t even know if we found out for sure) that we did not carry the kind of insurance that would cover us from losing our house, should things get to that point.
That point about separating facts from assumptions (or erroneous information) would have been a good one for us, right?
It was a little overwhelming, not to mention a huge emotional drain to be sued (if you have been sued, you know what I’m talking about). But the point I got to was this: What can they take from us? Our house? Okay, we’ve lived in apartments until now, and even though God gave us this house, He will take care of us. It’s okay, and wherever we end up, we won’t be homeless.
After that, the whole thing stopped being consuming. And in time, the lawsuit was settled with our car insurance company.
What happened was that we went through a mutant version of Neil’s steps, and we did find peace. After we’ve done all we can (and we have the list to prove it!), trusting God is the hardest part. And yet, it’s the simplest, and the one He’s waiting to help us with.
And BTW, sorry the post on crosswalk.com was so hard to read the other day! I’ll admit – I have the book, and mine didn’t get reformatted. We should let Neil know lists mess us up… J
Man, who would have imagined it would take me 2 1/2 days to pack up my office and get ready for my new job? So that's my excuse for dropping off the blog for a few days.
ReplyDeleteI like Neil's statement in the explanation of step 1. As followers of Christ, it is important to surround ourselves with counsel from people who share the same pursuit of Jesus as you. The world's wisdom is often at odds with Godly wisdom. The added benefit to seeking counsel from brothers and sisters in Christ is that they will often join you in coming to the throne to ask Him who knows the beginning from the end.
Aw man, I missed that pile of stuff over there in that corner of my office... gotta go pack!
As I learned in the women’s leadership class a couple of years ago. If it is big enough to worry about it is big enough to pray about. We learned that no matter how insignificant something seems (to us) if we are worried about it we need to give it to God. Because He will be up all night ANYWAY!
ReplyDeleteI like what Neil said about taking our responsibility. Giving a problem to God cannot be used as a cop out, we must do what we are responsible for, what we have control over. Otherwise, God will throw it right back to us to do our part.