To Those Who Worry

To Those Who Worry,

Not long ago, I found a diagram that gave you two options: can you fix it? Yes or no. Surprisingly, the reaction in both cases was, “then don’t worry”. I immediately began to come up with arguments that justified being worried. However, I realized that we only worry as a safety net. It is almost as if we go on autopilot and whenever we cannot do something to help our situation, we worry. When things don’t turn out our way, we justify our fears, “I knew I couldn’t do it”. Stress is inevitable, but worrying fixes nothing.

Outside faith and reason are the unknown, and when things are unknown, we worry. I wish I could tell you that I found the perfect cure for worrying and that it was as simple as opening and closing your eyes. It is not, but it is possible. As the generation that has information at our beck and call, many of us find it difficult to deal with impotence. We want things to be fixable, and we want for it to be us who fixes things.

I can’t say there is an easy way to stop worrying, but there is an alternative: prayer. We have to realize that God is omnipotent even in our minds. You are never alone. God wants to help. He died on the cross with open arms as if waiting to embrace us. The least we could do is address Him and turn our worries to Him. He can always do something about it even when we can’t. As long as we worry, we keep the problem close to us, and even though it does not help the outcome, it allows us to have a faux sense of control. Sometimes, instead of worrying, we have to let it go and pray. We just have to trust. Yes if we stop worrying, the world will still feel as if it is crumbling around us sometimes. However, if that is the case, shouldn’t we want to rely on the only constant in our lives? God, the one being out of time who is fully good will always be there. So, if you must worry, turn to God, and pray. Only then something good might come from a little worrying. The world would benefit from a lot less worrying and a lot more praying, because God did not put us in this world to worry, and if we have time to worry, we have time to pray.

With Mary in Christ,

Someone who used to worry