Why Worry?

Well, what does it mean to worry? Google's definition is as follows, "The state of being anxious and troubled over actual or potential problems." Worrying is something relatively easy to achieve, wouldn't you say? Worrying is something so simple to do that it becomes a reflex for certain people, and yes, worrying is a verb -a doing word. We can't worry without some sort of effort.

We as humans can worry about most anything; from worrying about where we are going the get the money for the month's mortgage, to what shampoo to use. Yes, it might sound silly, but yet again, the whole concept of worrying is silly.

Worrying eventually leads to being paranoid. What does it mean to be paranoid? Google's definition is as follows, "unreasonably anxious, suspicious, or mistrustful," In other words; paranoia is what happens when worry kicks into overdrive. I personally divide paranoia into two categories; short term and long term. Why? Well, short term paranoia is the after affect of worrying for a reasonable time period. It happens when you start worrying and it all snowballs into one big 'worry storm' that takes the focus of your worry away from the first thing you worried about and turns it to random stuff [you will see an example of this in Decision 1, so just keep reading]. Long term paranoia is the actual mental condition of constant fear, mistrust and worry. We worry so much, but is it useful? Do we accomplish anything by worrying?

Scenario:

Mary's son has written his grade 12 exams and she eagerly expects his report card. She is a widow at the age of 43 who works as the P.A. to the owner of a massive insurance company, but took the day off especially to be able to take her son out to a restaurant pending his report card's results. She had stayed up late into the previous night with work related things, to try and justify herself taking the day off, and feels quite tired. She has nothing to do at home -for a change- and ends up sitting on a sofa in the lounge with a cappuccino and a movie. Her head spins at the thought of her son's grades and the movie continues to play, but doesn't at all have her attention. Her son had always been a very diligent learner -thank God- and didn't let friends or most anyone interfere when he was studying. But, it was always nerve wrecking to wait for his report cards. So Mary sat and waited. It was as if the clock kept ticking, but the time didn't pass. 'Why does time always have to go so slow when you have to wait!?' Thoughts simmered in her mind...

Decision 1: She worried frantically, "What if the results are not that good? Then my son will struggle to get into university. What if he didn't pass anyway!? Oh no... say he failed one subject but passed the others? He would have to redo the failed subject. Where am I going to get money to pay for that if he did fail one subject? A study policy covers his university, so that covers the costs associated with that. But, what if that isn't enough? What if I have to pay extra? What if he dies in an accident on the way here? What if..." [This is an example of short term paranoia]

Decision 2: She finishes her cappuccino and puts her feet up, "I might as well get some shut eye, besides, why worry about his marks? He has already written his test, and there's no point in stressing about it now."

Decision 3: "I best get the car keys and my wallet ready, when he comes home we would want to go quickly before the late afternoon rush at the mall." She got up and got her things ready when a thought occurred to her, "What if he didn't pass?" She just countered the thought, "We prayed and he learned hard -he even told his girlfriend to give him a little space to learn- so I have faith that it all went well."

Ending for Decision 1, 2, and 3: Her son got home calmly -as usual- and they opened the report card. There wasn't any subject that he didn't get under 84% for. She hugged him and they thanked Jesus with a prayer. "So it ended alright in the end," she thought as she hugged her son, proud of his accomplishment.

[Decision 2 & 3 are better ways to think than Decision 1]

So, we see that no matter how we worry, the result isn't changed. We also see that worrying tends to cause a snowball effect; one worry leads to another which leads to another. We see that Mary ended up worrying about paying for him to redo his subject that he could possibly have failed, and if her son would come home alive. I once heard a very interesting quote, "If I worry, I die. If I don't worry, I die too. So why worry?" Worrying is actually useless. It doesn't matter what we worry about, no amount of worrying will change anything that has already happened, or that will eventually happened.

Jesus put it one way in Matthew 6:27, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" He also says in Matthew 6:34a, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself..." What does Jesus mean? He is basically telling us not to worry. He says that we can worry all we like, but we cannot 'add one cubit to our stature'. He also says that it is no use worrying about the day of tomorrow, it can take care of itself.

Therefore, I can safely say that no amount of worry can make things better or worse than they are, and it can't change a thing." If I worry, I die. If I don't worry, I die too. So why worry?"