By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
We have always had pets. Mostly dogs and cats. We had one dog, Pepper, some of you may have known. At the same time, we had Molly, a cat.
We would buy rawhide chew bones for Pepper. He thought very highly of them. They were his! He had no intention of sharing them with the cat. And, of course, Molly cared nothing for rawhide bones.
But Molly was either a perverse creature or she had a great sense of humor. Whenever Pepper would leave his bone alone, Molly would run over to it as if she wanted to snatch it up.
And Pepper would respond by running and barking at her to get her to leave his bone alone. To her, I’m sure it was a game but to him, it was a great worry.
I can’t tell you how many times I told Pepper that she didn’t want his bone. Pepper loved me and trusted me for so much, but he couldn’t believe me that Molly cared nothing for his bone.
I’m sure he reasoned that because it was so important to him, it must be important to her. How many times have we worried over things that were very important to us?
And how many times have we read scriptures like Matt 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” or Luke 12:25 “And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span”.
God tells us that he is in control and to trust him. Yet, if you are like me, you worry. Even though we know our worry will not solve the issue or make any real difference except to make our nights sleepless and our days clouded with fear, we still worry.
Like Pepper, we cannot believe our Master about some things even though we trust him with so many other things. Why is that? What is it that makes us worry about things we can’t control?
Admittedly, not everyone worries but to me, worry feels built in. I can’t imagine a life where I don’t worry. What about you?
I have over the years learned that some things that might be called worry, were not. I am an administrative type of guy. I make plans for myself and for others. I go over those plans in my mind, looking for weaknesses and opportunities for something to go wrong. I learned not to call that worry.
That is simply a good planning technique. There is the “6P” rule that I love. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
It means before you take action, take time to make plans on how to manage your task best by avoiding preventable pitfalls. Worry is another matter. Worry is when I fail to look at God. Worry is when I think the outcome is in my hands alone.
Philippians 4:6 reads: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Worry is a sin when we fail to remember or trust that God is in control and that God loves us so much that he is always looking out for us.
I won’t tell you not to worry but I would suggest that when you can, you as quickly as you can, focus your mind off the concern and on the One in control.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.