Fear is one of the characters personified in the mind of Riley Anderson in the film Inside Out. Fear is portrayed as a tall, lanky, lavender skinned character with a long nose and a penchant for wearing magenta bow ties and purple slacks. He is at one and the same time, fearful, nervous, timid, cowardly, insecure, paranoid, passive, snarky, friendly, shy, conscientious, aware, diligent, concerned, frightened, unnerved, good-natured, responsible, loyal, hardworking, dependable, embarrassed, intelligent, and self-conscious. But, mostly, fear is portrayed as anxious. The best word we can use for anxious? Worried!
I personally think the character would have been better named “worry,” but I’m not the author, so my opinion doesn’t count. The character spent much more time worrying than he did in fear. Fear is a healthy emotion. Fear can protect us…often from ourselves, but an unguarded fear only causes us anxiety, or worry. Worry is incredibly unhealthy. That’s what I’d like us to focus on this morning—overcoming worry. We don’t need to overcome the emotion of fear. Remember, it is helpful. It is appropriate to “fear” God. It is appropriate to fear snakes—the only good snake is a dead snake! Proper fear guides the “fight or flight” reaction in each of us. Worry, however, is a different animal altogether.
We first need to distinguish between what are legitimate fears and fear that causes us to worry. Some of the things fear reacts to in the movie is when Riley discovers she’s moving to California, and fear overreacts to the ideas of earthquakes. Joy has to squelch Fear with the idea that earthquakes are just a myth. You know what else earthquakes are? Out of our control. If a situation is out of our control, there is little reason for us to worry about it. There is a fine line between fear and worry. Think about it this way: I have a legitimate concern over an upcoming test in school. That is a situation within my control, and I can alleviate any fears or worries about it by one simple act—studying. Perhaps I’m concerned about my finances, and I’m afraid of not having as much money as I have month. That, too, is within my control. I can put myself on a budget, or better yet, I can attend Financial Peace University, which has its second preview night on January 13th at 6:00 p.m., in The View Sunday school room. Or, I’m fearful because I’ve discovered a knot on my neck that wasn’t there before. That fear can motivate me to go to the doctor to get it checked out. Fear is helpful in all those cases.
Worry, on the other hand, asks the question, “What if?” Inappropriate fear focuses on the improbably, uncontrollable circumstances for which there can be no action. Let’s use the same scenarios we just used. Suppose I study for the test, but I worry, “What if I forget everything? What if I fail?” Or, I go see a financial counselor and begin to follow a budget, but I still worry, “What if the stock market crashes, or the car breaks down or I lose my job?” Or, I go to the doctor, get the tests done and the doc gives me a good report, but I’m still fearful and worry, “What if I get cancer? What if the tests are wrong?” Worry focuses on those things we can’t control or change. That is what Jesus wants us to avoid because that kind of fear can have lasting negative effects, and can rob the joy of our lives.
What are some of the negative effects of worry? First, worry wastes our time and energy. Worrying is like racing your car engine while it’s in neutral. All that does is waste fuel, stress the motor and get us nowhere. One study showed that the average person worries:
• 40% of the time on things that will never happen
• 30% of the time on things about the past that can’t be changed
• 12% on other people’s opinions that can’t be controlled
• 10% about personal health, which only deteriorates with stress, and
• 8% on real problems that will soon be faced.
Ninety-two percent of the worrying we do is about things we can’t control. What a waste of time!
Secondly, worry erodes our health. Jesus asked, “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” What are the health problems caused by worry? Ulcers, heart attacks, high blood pressure, and sleeplessness among others. Worry really does shorten our lives.
Did you hear about the father who worried over his rebellious son? The father told his son, “Every time you act like that, you give me another gray hair!”
The boy replied, “Wow, Dad, you must have been a rotten kid—look at Grandpa!”
These days, drug manufacturers are making huge profits off worrying. The list of drugs designed to treat emotional distress is long but is led by Valium, Zoloft and Prozac. The Mayo Clinic has termed anxiety the “emotion of the age.”
Thirdly, worry distorts our judgement. A heard the story of the Indiana man who bought an SUV and then realized he couldn’t afford the payments. He worried about his credit score if the vehicle should be repossessed, so he hit upon the idea of wrecking it and getting the insurance to pay it off. No more worries, right? Wrong! He went out on a country road where he thought it would be safe and no one would see. He drove the vehicle into a tree at 35 miles per hour. He got out, looked over the damage and thought it insufficient to total the vehicle. He got back in the truck, backed it up and ran it into the tree again. Then, he called the police.
Thirty minutes later an officer arrived and asked what happened. The man said he must’ve fallen asleep. “That’s strange,” the office said. “A farmer who lives nearby was working in his field and called and said some guy hit a tree near his place, backed up and then, hit it again. That wouldn’t be you, would it?”
The officer warned the man that if he turned the report in to his insurance company, he’d be arrested for fraud. Now, he has payments he can’t make and a vehicle he can’t drive. Worry skews our judgment and compounds our problems.
Finally, worry insults God. The primary reason we worry is that we want to control our lives rather than letting God control them. Our worry communicates that we have no faith in God’s desire or ability to provide for our needs. Jesus said, “…if God cares so wonderfully for the flowers…won’t he more surely care for you? You have so little faith!” He also says three times in these verses, “Do not worry…” When he says, “Do not steal, do not kill, do not bear false witness,” we sit up and take notice. Why is it different with worry?
Here’s the good news for us this morning: we don’t have to worry, even if we’re prone to worrying, or it is part of our temperament. Jesus never asks us to do something we can’t do. He’s in the transformation business. Acknowledging that Jesus can transform us through the power of the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean we’ll never again be tempted to worry, but it does mean we can overcome the worry and live in joy and peace. Worry is NOT inevitable.
The prescription for overcoming worry is one that is centered in the heart, and it’s a matter of focus. Jesus said our heavenly father would provide everything we need if we will make Him our primary focus. If our focus is on this world, we will worry. If our primary focus is on money, we will worry because no matter how much money we have, it will never be enough. Someone asked John D. Rockefeller how much money would be enough, and he replied, “Just one more dollar.” If our primary focus is on our health, we will worry because these bodies get old and things go wrong, no matter how much medical technology we develop. But, if our primary focus is the Kingdom of God, everything takes on a different perspective.
Here are some practical ways to help re-align our focus. Perhaps it would be better to say “transform” our focus. First, become a Christian. If we haven’t done so already, we need to allow Jesus Christ to be Lord of our lives. Jesus says in Matthew 11: 28 – 30: “Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.” There is a story told of a man who knew someone who constantly worried. If he was being blessed, he worried that it would not continue. If he was experiencing a time of need, he worried whether or not he was ever going to make it.
Well, the man met the worrier on the street and noticed he was without a care in the world, so he asked him what had happened. The worrier responded that he didn’t have to worry anymore because he had hired a professional worrier. The man responded that this was absolutely wonderful and asked how much he had to pay his hired worrier? The now carefree man said that it cost him $1,000 a day. How can you afford to pay that much? He replied, “I can’t, but ‘that’s his worry’!”
Jesus is like our professional worrier. Worried about something? Give it to Jesus.
Secondly, worship regularly. Worship reminds us that God is bigger than our problems. We are reminded every time we gather together as the people of God that we serve an awesome God, One who is so much more than we can think or imagine, and we are reminded that He cares so much for us that He gave His Son for our sins so that we could be reconciled to Him.
Finally, trust God. Jesus said, “God cares for the birds and the flowers. Certainly, he cares for you.” Trusting God doesn’t mean ignoring reality. Even birds have things to be concerned about—things like snakes and flying south in cold weather. Even flowers are concerned about concerns about getting cut and withering to die (yes! Hyperbole, I know). We, too, must also face reality. People die. Accidents happen. Markets crash. Couples divorce. Life happens. To say we won’t think about it doesn’t do justice to our hearts. We overcome the worry by remembering the words of Jesus in John 16: 33: “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Another passage we might do well to remember come from the Apostle Paul as he waited for his own death sentence in a Roman prison: “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4: 12 – 13 NLT).
How does that work in everyday life? Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of Nazi Germany shared a story from her childhood. She witnessed the Nazi soldier arrest and torture older Christians and she commented to her father that she could never endure such persecution, that she worried she would never be faithful if that ever happened to her. He father told her, “Corrie, God will give you the faith you need.” But, she kept insisting she would never have that kind of faith and courage.
Finally, her dad said to her, “Do you remember when you were a little girl and we took rides on the train? I kept your ticket in my pocket. Do you remember when I gave you the ticket?”
She said, “Yes, just before I got on the train.”
“Right,” her father said. “I kept the ticket until you needed it so you wouldn’t lose it. God will give you the faith you need. He will empower you by His Holy Spirit when you need it. Trust Him for that.”
When Corrie Ten Boom was later arrested and persecuted, her faithfulness became an inspiration to all Christians, and her story is immortalized in the movie The Hiding Place.
God has promised to care for us. When we put our trust in Jesus Christ, worship regularly and trust Him for daily provision in our lives, then the Holy Spirit works to transform us…and the emotion of fear will do its proper work in our lives and keep us safe from the appropriate things, and fit us for a joyful life in Christ. Amen.
