The 95-year-old woman at the nursing home received a visitor one day. It was one of her fellow church members, someone who thought very highly of the elderly lady.
“How are you feeling?” the visitor asked.
“Oh,” said the lady, “I’m worried sick!”
“What are you worried about, dear?” her friend asked. “You look like you are in good health. They are taking care of you, aren’t they?”
“Yes, they are taking very good care of me.”
“Well, what are you worried about?” her friend asked again.
The lady leaned back in her rocking chair and slowly explained her major worry. “Every close friend I ever had has already died and gone on to heaven. I’m afraid they’re all wondering where I went.”
I am going to preface this morning’s message by telling you that this morning’s sermon is aimed at no one any more than it is aimed at me. I preach to myself at least as much as I preach to any of you. I always hope I get something from the message as I am going about my research. But, from when I first started planning this new sermon series, I knew today’s message would be one I needed to listen to at least as much as any of you need to listen to it.
Why? Well, I am a worrier. I get anxious over many things. Cindy can go to bed and the second her head hits the pillow she can turn off her brain and go to sleep. Most of the time, I just lay there. Sometimes I will lay there for hours with all kinds of ridiculous thoughts running through my brain. As often as not, I am getting anxious about something. And, way too much of the time I am worrying needlessly. Whatever it is that I am worried about never seems to come to pass.
I know I am not alone. There are many people in the world who are just like me. My friend Steve is also a worrier. One night he and his wife and Cindy and I went out to dinner together. He started talking about being a big worrier. Cindy said she rarely worries about much of anything. Steve’s response was interesting. I am not sure of his exact words but the following statement comes pretty close to the spirit of what Steve said even if it isn’t a direct quote. “That worries me that you don’t worry.” I told Steve I would be quoting him in a sermon. His response, “It isn’t that I don’t trust God, it is that sometimes I worry about God’s decision making process.”
While Steve was joking, at least to a degree, it would seem that many of us are that way. There are many, many people in the world that just aren’t happy if they aren’t worrying about something. And, while I am a worrier, I am not one who gets anxious constantly. I am not a toxic worrier. Toxic worriers are people who constantly obsess over everything that could possibly go wrong in life – to the point of paralysis. Research shows people with this level of anxiousness are 2 ½ times more likely to suffer heart attacks than less anxious people.
From Adam and Even in the Garden, through Moses leading the Israelites in the Exodus, down to the latest Stephen King thriller, there is one sure-fire way to get people “excited” about a situation. If you want to stop them in their tracks invoke fear, anxiousness, and worry.
Adam felt shame (and fear) and hid from God in the Garden. At the Red Sea, the Israelites, hearing the distant approach of Egyptian chariots and hoof beats, were extremely anxious and worried until the waters parted and they had a way to make their escape. Crossing on dry land eased their worries, to be sure, but despite the great miracles they had seen in the preceding days – surviving the plagues, taking spoils from their masters and moving to freedom – they were all but paralyzed with fear at the prospect of heading into the unknown. To put it quite bluntly, they were worried. They were anxious. They were toxic worriers.
If you think such paralyzing fear only strikes a few of us, take a good look in the mirror: Nearly half the American people are consumed with some form of worry or anxiety says Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist and instructor at Harvard Medical School. He even wrote a book on the subject, Worry: Hope and Help for a Common Condition, published in 1998 by Ballantine Books.
“Good worry is worry that leads to constructive action,” he told People magazine that same year. In other words, good worry works. “Toxic worry,” Hallowell goes on to say, “does just the opposite. It paralyzes you. You brood, you ruminate, you wake up in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, you don’t take action.” (People, October 26, 1998, 145ff).
At least on an intellectual level I understand my worrying is at least somewhat of a sign of a lack of faith. While I am not a toxic worrier, my worry also isn’t particularly constructive. I need to learn when I pray about something, I need to leave it to God and let God do all the worrying. I need to pray and then walk away and leave it alone.
This morning we are beginning a new sermon series, “The Radical Sayings of Jesus.” During this series we will be looking at some of the things Jesus said that are difficult for us. Perhaps they don’t seem quite right to our ears and maybe even our hearts. We are starting with this idea of worry or anxiousness and looking at Jesus’ saying, “Be anxious for nothing.” Really? Isn’t it natural for we humans to worry? Isn’t it part of life for us to get anxious, even if my wife claims she doesn’t?
For all too many of us, we are afraid to allow God to lead us. We are afraid to allow God to take control. We worry about where God may take us if we actually give God that control. Anxiety is our keeping, maintaining control in the situation.
An old proverb says, “Worry is the interest you pay on trouble before it arrives.”{ And for those of us who would classify ourselves as worriers, if we are really honest with ourselves, not only is our anxiety the interest we pay on trouble before it arrives, sometimes the trouble we anticipate, the trouble we worry over, never actually arrives. We literally worry over nothing.
What we need is a change. We need something to be different, but it has to come from within. Think about this.
You are standing in front of a full length mirror with a really big event looming in your future. Perhaps this big event is your first piano recital or a first date, maybe it is a major family gathering or a big business meeting. As you stare at your reflection, all you seem to notice is your appearance seems to lack something and that worries you. Your anxiety level is on the rise.
Your hair is too long, to short, too curly, not wavy enough, dull, unstylish, the wrong color or just plain fried. Your eyes look lifeless, probably because you lost sleep from worrying about what you’re going to wear today to the big event. And then, of course, there are those minor imperfections in your complexion that seem to be anything but minor to you. You know the whole world sees them.
Your solution to the problem… a complete makeover. Only with a radical change to your appearance will your anxiety levels drop and will you arrive at your big even feeling radiant, beautiful, and accepted.
Many of us are seldom satisfied with the way we look, and the world knows it. People build entire careers out of the desire some folks have for self-improvement whether that self-improvement be in physical appearance or something else.
But, what happens when the mirror you are looking into reflects beyond outward appearance? What happens when it shows the condition of your heart? What about the character imperfections – things so woven into our personality that we can’t even identify them individually? Does the beauty profile of our lives lack something? Peace, maybe? Contentment? Joy? Purpose? For many the lack of peace and joy and contentment is the result of all the overwhelming worry that is such a big part of their lives.
It’s time for a real makeover. It’s time, not for a physical makeover but instead for an internal makeover of the heart. But where do you go for something like that?
We need to ask God to help us turn loose of the anxiety that weighs us down. We need to, with the greatest depth of conviction we can muster, turn the worries of our lives over to God. We need to put into real action the first verse of Scripture in our lesson this morning, “I tell you,” Jesus says, “Be anxious for nothing…”
Jesus is telling his listeners not to worry over the things of life. I know, specifically Jesus speaks of food and clothing, and this, we aren’t speaking of small stuff, we are talking about basic needs in life. What Jesus is saying to those listening is, “You need to depend on God. God will take care of your every need. And, if God will take care of even these most basic of needs, God will see to all the needs of your life. So don’t worry.” Please note, I did not say God would see to your every want. God will see to your every need.
Let’s face a few facts for what they really are. For most of us, not all but most, who live in this society, whether we will have food or clothing isn’t really an issue. What we tend to worry over is, do I have the right outfit for that party coming up on Saturday night. Or, do I want to eat Mexican or Chinese when this guy finally quits talking about worry and anxiety and lets us leave and we can go mull over all our worries while we are having lunch this afternoon.
We live in an on-demand society. We worry when we don’t get what we want when we demand it. As people of faith, we need to focus our energies not on anxieties and worries over what we do or don’t have. Scripture, including our lesson makes it clear God will see to our needs. Instead we can route our energies into being God’s hands and feet in the world around us. We can be the instruments God uses to meet the basic needs for those who share our world.
Sometimes attributed to “Dear Abby, “ want to close this morning with what is entitled, “The Ten Commandments for a Long and Peaceful Life:
1. Thou shalt not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human activities.
2. Thou shalt not be fearful, for most of the things we fear never come to pass.
3. Thou shalt count thy blessings, never overlooking the small ones – for a lot of small blessings add up to a big one.
4. Thou shalt not become bogged down by frustration, for 50 percent of it is rooted in self-pity and will only interfere with positive actions.
5. Thou shalt not take problems to bed with you, for they make very poor bedfellows.
6. Thou shalt not borrow other people’s problems. They can take better care of them than you.
7. Thou shalt be a good listener, for only when you listed do hear ideas different from your own. It’s very hard to learn something new when you are the one talking.
8. Thou shalt not try to relive yesterday for good or ill – it is gone. Concentrate on what is happening in your life today.
9. Thou shalt not cross bridges before you get to them, for no one yet has succeeded in accomplishing this.
10. Thou shalt face each problem as it comes. You can handle only one at a time.
They are good advise for all of us. We need to not worry quite so much. If we can turn loose of the worry it will help us to take life as it comes and in so doing our anxiety levels will go down. It just might help us live out Jesus’ words, “Be anxious for nothing.”
Next week we will continue our series on “The Radical Sayings of Jesus” with a sermon titled, “Sell All Your Things and Give to the Poor.”
