21st June 2007

The state of worry. You've heard of people being addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, gambling, sex, and a host of other things. But did you know, we can be addicted to worry? That's right; there are people, me included, who can be addicted to worrying over their lives, and when we can't find our own stuff to worry about, we'll start worrying about our friends, relatives, and neighbors!

Worry is defined as feeling uneasy, troubled, anxious or distressed. It can also mean being plagued by nagging concerns. It is, ultimately, described as tormenting oneself with disturbing thoughts.

After years of worrying, I finally realized that we humans are too smart to be tormenting ourselves, and should pull ourselves out from our own traps of blindness. We just need to realize that worry never makes anything better. Never. The fact the it's time wasting, energy draining, makes worry an effective satanic weapon! Damnation keeps our mind preoccupied with worries, that we cannot use our mind in productive, honoring ways.

It doesn't matter whether you are a Christian, a skeptic, or even one who thinks that the Bible is hate speech. Just treat as though this phrase is spoken by some great thinker, and not by some hogwash religious freaks, okay? It makes quite a lot of sense!

Mat 6:25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Mat 6:26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Mat 6:27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Mat 6:28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
Mat 6:29 yet I tell you, even Solomon [who was a great king of his time] in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Mat 6:31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
Mat 6:32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
Mat 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Mat 6:34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I, as a teen, once struggled with self-image, and some of you may do so too, but surely we can believe that we're more valuable than a bird, or grass, at least in someways, right? To your parents, and to a God who truly loves us!

I am thankful for being able to cast my worries aside; giving them to my parents, and having a loving girlfriend for me to just share them with. How much must I thank her! She would just listen, making me feel so much better.

But there may come a time that we have terrible worries. So horrifying are they, that we wouldn't even dare speak of. Dumbfounded, we shiver. Flabbergasted, we tremble before it's wrath. Slackjawed, we cry in terror. These are worries that many people have, after they face severe rebukes, and have done earth-shattering things that they cannot ever hope to forgive themselves. Still others had been the victim of abuse. Many think silly thoughts, hurting themselves, in a state of self-pity and wallow in despair. Suicide seems like a good friend to them. Believe me, I have had similar symptoms. Needless to say I would scream in my head and struggle in disappointment.

Then there comes along a joy that few will ever believe. The fire of worry and despair that burns within us seemed unstoppable. Then I met my Creator in a personal experience, feeling His comfort firsthand. I didn't bother going to the church to kneel down and pray, nor speaking to a pastor. From a fake Christian who is dragged to church every Sunday, I just flung my worries like a fireball to God. Yes, pick 'em up and fire 'em God's way. Believe me, He can catch them, and He knows what to do with them. In a artistic description of what happened to mine, you can imagine God holding the fireball in His hand, and like a tai chi master in some Chinese movie, simply do some hand movements, and make the fireball smaller, and smaller, until it disappears in a puff of smoke. Instead of "God! I have a big problem!" which I thought earlier, I would go to the remains of my troubled past and say "Hey, problem!" with a smirk, and add, "I have a big God!"

How much I thank God, and how I wish my loved ones can truly experience God's love for themselves! But if not for my troubles, a scoundrel like me having a ravaged past, all these could not have been possible! I just pray that somehow, all whom I love would be touched by God's abundant grace, and feel the joy that overwhelmed me...

Ending of this long post. By now I may give the impression that peace of mind comes by only having no worries in your mind at all. It is like a serene nature scene, with a still lake as its focal point. But I say to you, true peace is a tree branch extended over a raging, rushing waterfall. Perched in the branch is a bird in its nest, resting in the security of its home. The bird understood that in its nest, it was safe from the danger below. There can't be no peace without opposition, just as there can't be courage without fear. You just need to find comfort, and someone to trust in, who would not fail you, and all your worries so easily disappear...

Bid God bless you. Jesus truly loves you! He cares for you and is waiting ever so patiently for you to seek Him! For He delights, yes, delights in giving His children good things!