What's The Point In Worrying?

I've just been watching 'Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in One Day' which is a fascinating insight into the daily life of the NHS from all sorts of different perspectives.

 

One elderly man had gone into one hospital for a cataract operation.  When his wife was asked how she was feeling about his operation, she said, "I'm not worrying.  I mean, what's the point?"

 

What's the point?

 

Well said!

 

She followed this by saying, "I mean, you die if you worry, you die if you don't."

 

Worry doesn't change a thing.

 

Jesus asked,

 

"Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

[Matthew 6:27 NIV]

 

 

Often we can think that if we worry about something, we will somehow prevent it from happening.  But do we really believe this?  Do we really believe that our worry-power can change circumstances outside of our control?

 

Worrying strips us of our peace of mind. It wears us out and eats away at us. Worry is never satisfied.

 

I think sometimes we quite enjoy worrying, because in a strange way, it makes us feel in control.  It helps us to get a grip - or feel as though we have got a grip - on something that is out of control.

 

The opposite of worry is trust.

 

Jesus continued,

 

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

[Matthew 6:33-34 MSG]

 

We can choose to trust that God will help us, whatever happens.  Or we can choose to worry.

 

But what's the point?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Problems With Being Over-Prepared

I like to be organised.

 

I don't mean just a little bit organised, I mean completely, utterly, totally organised.  I like to be prepared for a range of events; I like to anticipate alternative outcomes and I like to feel that I would know how to react or respond to each of them.

 

To this end, I am often thinking about the future - I will run through things in my mind which could occur tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or even several years from now.

 

I like to be prepared.

 

But sometimes this obsession with the future leads me to forget about what's going on right here, right now.  I end up thinking so much about what might happen, that I forget to live in what is happening.  I worry too much about tomorrow that I forget to enjoy today.

 

Jesus warns against this fretting about the future in his sermon on the mount.  I love the beauty of this verse -

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

 

[Matthew 6:34 MSG]

 

The thing about tomorrow is that we have no idea what it will hold.  And I can imagine a thousand different possibilities, but I won't know if I am right until they do - or don't - happen.

 

There is no point me fretting and worrying and 'preparing', and wasting time doing all of these things, when I don't know if the things I am preparing for will actually come to pass.

 

Instead, I want to learn to give my entire attention to God right now - to live in today and to entrust tomorrow to Him.

 

 

 

 

Love Letters

I have been watching the film 'Dear John' this evening.  I joined it halfway through, so I'm not 100% sure what's happening, but I think I'm just about up to speed.

 

At the heart of the story is a young couple, separated by distance, who write to each other (or, to be properly American, write each other).

 

The letters are filled with messages of love between the couple and stories from their days.

 

When we talk about prayer, this is what I picture.  Not a stuffy ritual.  Not a list of wishes or wants.  Not a hands-together-and-eyes-shut affair.  But messages of love between us and God.

 

This is how Jesus taught us to pray -

 

“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God.  Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage.  The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.  The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant.  They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God.  Don’t fall for that nonsense.  This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.  With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply."

 

[Matthew 6:6-13 MSG]

 

When we write letters to those we love, we don't try to show off or pretend we're someone we're not.  We don't hide the truth.  We express ourselves honestly and openly.  We share our hearts and we share our love.

 

God speaks to us through prayer, but He also speaks to us through the Bible.  His Word is a love letter [there is a brilliant and beautiful description of the Bible as God's love letter to us on this website - http://www.fathersloveletter.com/text.html].

 

God loves us and wants us to know the love He has for us.  He has already written to us.

 

We simply need to open the letter.

 

 

 

 

 

Full stops

"I've never really used full stops, Miss.  I've never needed them."

Such was the highlight of a recent conversation with a Year 7.  Instead of correctly separating his sentences with full stops, each page was a never-ending sentence, littered with commas, for which the reader needed one huge breath to complete.

 

Rather than providing useful pauses and breathers to divide up the information, everything ran into itself and tripped over itself.  There was too much information and not enough time or space to process it.

 

In writing, full stops are essential for the reader.  But sometimes in life, we can focus too much on the 'full stops'.  We get distracted by the next pause, the next break, the next significant marker in our lives  - If I could just make it to the weekend. This time next year, things will be better. When I get a better-paid job, I'll be happier.  When I meet someone.  When I get married.  When we have kids. etc.  We think that our lives will be complete and we will find significance and meaning when we reach these milestones.

 

We look to the horizon and wait for our fulfilment.

 

But as Connie says in Mona Lisa Smile -

"The horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you approach it."

 

If we are always looking to the next 'full stop', we will miss what is happening in our lives right now.

 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says,

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

 

[Matthew 6:34 MSG, emphasis mine] 

 

We need to stop looking to the 'full stops' in our lives as markers of success and achievement, and instead make the decision to live right now and take on the attitude of Paul:

"As long as I’m alive in this body, there is good work for me to do."

[Philippians 1:22 MSG]

 

Our lives are ever-evolving stories, not just a collection of full stops.  We are meant to live between the punctuation marks.

 

 

Behind the Scenes

A rainy bank holiday seems to lend itself perfectly to a Downton Abbey marathon.  And that is exactly how I have spent today.

 

I'm always torn as to whether I would prefer to be 'upstairs' or 'downstairs': obviously upstairs get beautiful dresses and have a relatively easy life, but downstairs is full of intrigue.  Plus, I've always liked the idea of using servants' staircases and 'secret' passageways.

 

Watching it today, I was struck by how invisible some of the servants were - and had to be.  Their job was to serve the family without being seen. 

 

They worked behind the scenes.

 

Daisy, who usually works in the kitchens, is told off in one episode for still being above stairs lighting fires when the family are up - there is the fear that she might be seen.  The family, of course, know of her existence (after all, they hired her), but she is never meant to be seen by them.

 

It got me thinking about the way that we serve and our attitude towards it: sometimes we are quite the opposite of invisible.  If I have to get up early to set up stuff for church, I'm going to put it as my Facebook status - here at 8am!!!  If I'm the last one to leave because I'm packing everything away, I'm going to be sure to mention it in a conversation next week.  If I have to pay for something with my own money, I'll drop it into a conversation, by telling everyone that I "don't mind at all".

 

But is that really the servant heart that Jesus calls us to?

 

In the Sermon on the Mount, He said to His disciples -

"Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it.  It might be good theatre, but the God who made you won't be applauding.  When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. You've seen them in action, I'm sure — 'playactors' I call them — treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds.  They get applause, true, but that's all they get.  When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks.  Just do it — quietly and unobtrusively.  That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

 

[Matthew 6:1-4 MSG]

 

Jesus calls us to work behind the scenes, unobtrusively, quietly, humbly.  Serving others in the same way that He served us: without drawing attention to our efforts. God sees what we do in secret - behind the scenes - and He rewards us for it:

"Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

 

[Matthew 6:4 NIV] 

 

When it comes to serving, like Daisy, we should be invisible.  People should be able to see what we have done, but they don't need to know who has done it.  Our aim should be for people to see Jesus through our acts of service, not for them to see us.

"In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

 

[Matthew 5:16 NIV]