We live in a broken world full of broken people…… myself included. Because of this, things go wrong……. every day. When these things impact our lives or the lives of those we love, we worry. Worry can be painful our productive.
So……..how do we handle worry?
Years ago I made a list of things that I worry about. Since then I have added to and updated the list. I’ve even been able to take some things off of the list. My list is now 4 pages long…….. single spaced! I keep it on my cell phone so that I can worry efficiently anywhere I go.
Here is the top of page one of my list. Your list will be different. Please don’t send me corrections to my list……..it may not be perfect……. but it’s mine.
Salvation for my family
My children and grandchildren’s future
My family’s health
My company’s sales
Abortion
Hate in our society…. both on the left and on the right
The list has turned out to be extremely useful…… but not at all in the way that I expected. When I have some free time and feel the need to worry, I pull out my phone, call up the list and start worrying my way down page one. Without fail, before I reach the bottom of page one, I am exhausted or I lose interest. So…..I put away my phone and stop worrying. This is helpful.
The main benefit of the list, however, was completely unexpected. When somebody comes to me with some problem that they are worried about and that they are mad about and that they want me to worry about too, I think about the list…….. and where this new problem will go on the list. If it is a page one problem, I put it on page one and get right to work worrying about it. However, if it looks like it would fit on page four……… sometimes I put it on the list. You never know……pages one and two could get solved.
Realistically, though, I know that I’m not going to be giving much attention to page four. So……….. for most page four level problems, I just let them go and let somebody else worry about them.
My recommendations:
Don’t give up on page one. There are important things there that you can act on………important things that you can pray about. Page one contains the things that you can do something about……… in your life…….. and in your world. It contains the things that you can do to make your life……and the world……..a better place for all of us.
Don’t waste much time on page four. Check on it every now and then. Maybe something there needs to be moved up to page one………or maybe even deleted.
You can’t add a minute to your life by worrying about page four problems.
(Advice from God……..abridged).