are youaworry wart?or+articles/...gan, iwas in doc-.toral studies. i had academic worries, financial...

3
Are You a Worry Wart? by Desmond Ford L~~~'g~:rr-~:. ~<f~J: J(V,->, ~)' ~ (.> ~.r "' llll . " - _j1 tll'J~ (.,~ -:?Di66~ ~ (~~~k 1~ "- ~- <. 7iB~ ~ ~~7 ~~\\ UII'1s.JBJ'.;:) ~ . "'WI ;jC/). ':i ~ ~ JT!L.. "'i'V"- i= ~ >¥/ ~~ ......", > .".--r-':j}')......" ~L ~ ~ ~~ •••• II IL\... r~ I V:..I..UJ:: <- :-,,-.A. 'c. c:::~) ':j)0 ~ ~ J .liM11 .x- )~ (~ ~ .- /' Jm )...~ ~ l~,y; I~I ." .... V ~~ y ~ r~ ~ ft f7'EI.. II ~ I J!t j, 0 '/' ~ ~ '.' ,~&n!!~ >lO~~' 1>1,~ !<l!! '" , ..~ -, \\~r= )-J-.t(()O ~ :D- 'r::::::i\.( j 'N '" ~r ~ '\ q.i. 7 ~) "')( O;(lI4~N'-:::: ~'\ ~ ~ l~ ~::=~.~. y\:-,~~ 0_ \1~ \r~ \>1 ~\1;. 7~Jv9L fJ~'~'Y~~' ~~ ~~~b1\1J0~~ I ~~ ~~ tQ~~,~~~b:Qj ~ " ~Yl V ~ ..M , ___ II (0 ~r«:pD - ...L4' -. '" ~ IlX Jfln ~~ Ih~ /V 'r! ',-,I )( I"j . ~'\1~~dl ~-l~.21 c".c,~ ~ 'p;o.,u~ i'<:Sf ~ ,>-".1'.. IT-. ,,' '~ q<,.-.; 'r' l, ~ or? ~ - @.1 ~ '-' . o ~]~~tr~\ 8~(~:.--; r- ~~ -e:r ~ 'I c'N ,('b ) ~ lJl(;lL1) v.v', 'T'> ). "::::.P,. - \..J ~Y""'"ll "" I - I .J1;;h__ r-<~ -4 "- F or many, it is a worse health threat than cholesterol. It can weaken your efforts, spoil your sleep and di- gestion, rob you of joy, and tum your hair gray. Are you a worrier? Is that your problem? If so, you have plenty of company- me, for one. I recollect the time when as a young man in Lansing, Michi- gan, I was in doc- . toral studies. I had academic worries, financial worries, and at times I worried about the health of my two small children. While walking one night, engrossed in my worries, I remembered that I had to preach the next day. I was nearly scared to death when a dog barked out of the darkness. I im- mediately real- ized that most barking dogs don't bite, and most dogs that do bite don't bark, so I preached on the topic the next day after having preached the ser- mon to myself that night. Things Happen Without Worry! Is it not true, in your experience, that most of the 3 tragedies that have overtaken you have suddenly swooped down upon you, crept up upon you, without warning? Sometimes these tragedies are things you would never have anticipated. This means, of course, that most of our worries are for naught. You may have heard of the man who said, "There have been a lot of terrible things in my life but fortunately most of them never happened." Ninety-nine per- cent of the things we worry about never happen. The great ca- lamities usually come out of a cloudless sky. And that's often true of the good things too. Many of the best things that hap- pen to you and me weren't as a result of our grea t efforts, they were just the gifts of God. Entirely unex- pected. I suppose for Christians one of the worst aspects of this tendency to worry is that we feel so guilty about it. We've often heard, and it's true, that faith and fear are like oil and water-they don't mix. Does not the Scripture say, "He that feareth is not made perfect in love" (l In 4:18)? Perfect love casts out fear. Of course,

Upload: haque

Post on 11-May-2018

215 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Are You a Worry Wart?by Desmond Ford

L~~~'g~:rr-~:. ~<f~J:J(V,->, ~)' ~ (.> f§ ~.r "' llll ." - _j1 tll'J~ (.,~ -:?Di66~ ~(~~~k 1~ "- ~- <. 7iB~

~ ~~7 ~~\\·UII'1s.JBJ' .;:) ~ . "'WI;jC/). ':i ~ ~ JT!L.. "'i'V"- i= ~>¥/ ~~ ......",> •.".--r-':j}')......" ~L ~ ~ ~~

•••• I I IL\... r~I V:..I..UJ:: <- :-,,-.A. 'c.c:::~)':j)0 ~ ~ J .liM11 .x- )~ (~ ~.- /' Jm )...~ ~ l~,y; I~I

." ....V ~~ y ~ r~ ~ ftf7'EI.. II ~ I J!t j, 0 '/' ~ ~

'.' ,~&n!!~ >lO~~' 1>1,~ !<l!!'" , ..~ -, \\~r= )-J-.t(()O ~ :D-'r::::::i\.( j 'N '" ~r ~ '\ q.i. 7

~) "')( O;(lI4~N'-::::~'\ ~~ l ~ ~::=~.~. y\:-,~~ 0 _ \1~\r~ \>1 ~\1;.7~Jv9L fJ~'~'Y~~'

~~ ~~~b1\1J0~~ I ~~ ~~

tQ~~,~~~b:Qj ~ "~Yl V ~ ..M , ___ I I (0~r«:pD - ...L4' -. '" ~ IlX Jfln ~ ~ Ih~/V 'r! ',-,I )( I"j .~'\1~~dl ~-l~.21c".c,~ ~ 'p;o.,u~i'<:Sf ~ ,>-".1'.. IT-. ,,' '~ q<,.-.;

'r' l, ~ or? ~ - @.1 ~ '-' .o ~]~~tr~\ 8~(~:.--;r- ~ ~ -e:r~ ' I c'N ,('b ) ~ lJl(;lL1)

v.v', 'T'> ).·"::::.P,. - \..J ~Y""'"ll "" I - I .J1;;h__r-<~ -4 "-

For many, it is a worse health threat than cholesterol.It can weaken your efforts, spoil your sleep and di-

gestion, rob you of joy, and tum your hair gray. Are youa worrier? Is that your problem? If so, you have plentyof company-me, for one.

I recollect thetime when as ayoung man inLansing, Michi-gan, I was in doc-

. toral studies. Ihad academicworries, financialworries, and attimes I worriedabout the healthof my two smallchildren. Whilewalking onenight, engrossedin my worries, Iremembered thatI had to preachthe next day. Iwas nearlyscared to deathwhen a dogbarked out of thedarkness. I im-mediately real-ized that mostbarking dogsdon't bite, andmost dogs thatdo bite don'tbark, so Ipreached on thetopic the nextday after havingpreached the ser-mon to myselfthat night.

Things Happen Without Worry!

Is it not true, in your experience, that most of the3

tragedies that have overtaken you have suddenlyswooped down upon you, crept up upon you, withoutwarning? Sometimes these tragedies are things youwould never have anticipated. This means, of course,

that most of ourworries are fornaught. Youmay have heardof the man whosaid, "Therehave been a lotof terrible thingsin my life butfortunately mostof them neverhappened."Ninety-nine per-cent of the thingswe worry aboutnever happen.

The great ca-lamities usuallycome out of acloudless sky.And that's oftentrue of the goodthings too.Many of the bestthings that hap-pen to you andme weren't as aresult of ourgrea t efforts,they were justthe gifts of God.Entirely unex-pected.

I suppose forChristians one ofthe worst aspectsof this tendencyto worry is thatwe feel so guilty

about it. We've often heard, and it's true, that faith andfear are like oil and water-they don't mix. Does not theScripture say, "He that feareth is not made perfect inlove" (l In 4:18)? Perfect love casts out fear. Of course,

that has to be true coming from the Word of God. Butsometimes, perhaps, it's misunderstood, because there isa positive aspect to worry.

The Positive Side of Worry

Perhaps you've heard of that great Christian writer,F. W. Boreham. Though English by birth, he spent mostof his life in Australia. On one occasion he wrote an es-say on this topic in which he said:

Worry is a very good thing in its way.Those who condemnworry in terms thatsuggest that toworry is to playducks and drakeswith the Ten Com-mandments, neverstop to explain why,if worry be essen-tially and inherentlywicked, we are sentinto the world en-dowed with such aninfinite capacity fordoing it. Obviouslywe were made toworry. But we weremade to worrywisely. We weremade to take life se-riously and feel thegravity of things.The man who neverworries about hisbusiness will neverhave a businessworth worryingabout.!

Boreham illustratedhis theme by talkingabout the years of WorldWar I, and he spokeabout the crisis of that hour when the nation expected itsleaders to worry, when it was their binding duty toworry. Had a report gone abroad, that the nationalleaders were not worrying at all, that would havebrought greater consternation than the news of failuresin battle.

There are times when it's imperative that a doctorshould worry about his patient, an attorney shouldworry about his case, a farmer should worry about hiscattle and his crops. After all, it is through mentalstress, the stress that results from failure and discontent,that improvements are devised. If men never worried,things would always go on in the same way. Our wheelwould revolve in the same well-worn ruts. Civilizationwould be stultified by stagnation.

4

Ridiculous Excess of Worry

The problem, of course, is that we go to ridiculousexcess in our worrying. While it's our duty to worryabout the big things, to worry in the sense of being con-cerned, to do some analytical thinking, to reason fromcause to effect in order to make decisions and to act, etc.,it is not our duty to worry about trifles.

We tend to worry about everything, too often aboutthe insignificant molehill instead of just the great moun-tainpeaks. And that sort of worry is a fire that bums upthe brain. It leads to an exhaustion that can be a fertile

source of all disease. Doyou know that one per-son in ten in the USA willhave a nervous break-down mainly caused byworry and emotionalconflicts?

You've heard of Dr.Alexis Carroll, the NobelPrize winner. He said onone occasion, "Business-men that don't knowhow to fight worry, dieyoung." That's not onlytrue of businessmen,that's true of all of us. Agreat physician once saidthat 70 percent of all pa-tients who come to physi-cians could cure them-selves if they only got ridof their fears and worries.Fear causes worry andthen worry causes fear.Worry makes you tense,nervous, affects thenerves of your stomach,and can pave the way forstomach ulcers. Onewriter once said that youdo not get stomach ulcersfrom what you eat, youget ulcers from what's

eating you.

The Wrong Type of Worry Kills and Like All MurderIs a Sin

There's both truth and error in this matter of worry,and we need to make the distinction between the two.Christian warnings guard against foolish worry thatgoes round and round without analyzing the problemand coming to a decision or taking action to repair thesituation. That sort of worry is condemned in Scripture.For example, consider the words of our Lord in Matthew6:25-34 (RSV):

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious aboutyour life, what you shall eat or what you shall

drink, nor about your body, what you shall puton. Is not life more than food, and the bodymore 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. Areyou not of more value than they? And which ofyou by being anxious can add one cubit to hisspan of life? And why are you anxious aboutclothing? Consider the lilies of the field, howthey grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tellyou, even Solomon in all his glory was not ar-rayed like one of these. But if God so clothe thegrass of the field, which today is alive and to-morrow is thrown into the oven, will he notmuch more clothe you, a men of little faith?Therefore do not be anxious saying, What shallwe eat?' or What shall we drink?' or What shallwe wear?' For the Gentiles seek all these things;and your heavenly Father knows that you needthem all. But seek first his kingdom and hisrighteousness, and all these things shall be yoursas well. Therefore do not be anxious about to-morrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for theday.Marvelous words! Gird them to your soul if you are

a worrier. Write them out by hand. Read them often.Memorize them. Pray over them. What is our Lord say-ing? In verse twenty-five he says, 'Worry is needless."He asks us, "Isn't life more than food, isn't the bodymore than clothing?" In the next verse he tells us, "It'ssenseless." Look at the birds of the air. God looks afterthose. Won't he look after you? In the following versehe says, "It's useless." We can't add a year to our life byworry alone. It's useless. And in verses 28-30, he says,"It's faithless." We have little faith if we forget that ourheavenly Father knows and our heavenly Father cares.And then in verse 32 he says that worry is pagan. Theheathens seek after these things as a matter of primacy,but if we seek the kingdom of God first, God will add allthose things. And finally our Lord says that the day'sown trouble is sufficient for the day. Try believing it to-day. What magnificent practical advice from our Lordfor us worriers.

Worry About the Future

Almost all our worry is about the invisible tomor-row. Dale Carnegie in his excellent book How to StopWorrying and Start Living tells how the most famous phy-sician of the last century in this country, William Osler,had his life changed by reading twenty-one words fromThomas Carlyle. Here are those words: flOur mainbusiness is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but todo what lies clearly at hand." That changed Osler's life.It made him a great physician. Over two-score yearslater he addressed the students at Yale University.While crossing the Atlantic, he noticed on the greatocean liner, how the captain standing on the bridge,could press a button and with a clanging of machinery,

5

various parts of the ship were immediately shut off fromone another, shut off into water-tight compartments. Sothis is what Dr. Osler said to the Yale students beforehim:

Each one of you is a much more marvelousorganization than the great liner. You arebound on a longer voyage. What I urge is thatyou so learn to control the machinery as to livewith day-tight compartments as the certain wayto ensure safety on the voyage. Get on thebridge. See that at least the great bulkheads arein working order. Touch a button and hear atevery level of your life the iron doors shuttingout the past, the dead yesterdays. Touch an-other and shut off with a metal curtain the fu-ture, the unborn tomorrows. Then you're safe.Safe for today. Shut off the past. Let the deadpast bury its dead. Shut out the yesterdayswhich have lighted fools the way to dusty death.For the load of tomorrow, added to that of yes-terday, carried today makes the strongest falter.Shut off the future as tightly as the past. The fu-ture is today. There is no tomorrow. The day ofman's salvation is now. Waste of energy, mentaldistress, nervous worries, dog the steps of a manwho's anxious about the future. Shut close thenthe great fore and aft bulkheads and prepare tocultivate the habit of a life of day-tight compart-ments.2This is wonderful counsel from Dr. Osler for all of

us.

One Step at a Time

The grand old hYmnS of the Christian faith tell usthe same story. I have a hymnbook in my hand now,and I'm looking at that hymn by John Henry Newman,"Lead Kindly Light." Let me remind you of its firstverse.

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,Lead Thou me on;

The night is dark, and I am far from home;Lead Thou me on.

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to seeThe distant scene; one step's enough for me.

It should be enough for me too. It should be enoughfor you. .:.

Notes1. The Blue Flame, p. 39.2. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, p. 2.

[The two articles by Dr. Ford we publish this month are ex-tracted from his encyclopedic Worth More Than a Million,chapter 50. We hope your enjoyment of the articles willagain embolden you to pick up the 840-page book and benefitfrom its counsels. Worth More Than a Million is stillavailable from Desmond Ford Publications, 7955 BullardDrive, Newcastle, CA 95658 for $19.95 (add 6% sales taxwithin California), plus $2.00 postage/handling-Ed.]