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Tuesday Morning Epistles Welcome to "Tuesday Morning," a weekly dose of good news for Christians everywhere. Very early in our first year of publishing "Tuesday Mornings" I wrote an essay and entitled it, "Worry? Not!" It was one of the most-commented-on essays of our first year. Included were the basic biblical quotes that everyone is familiar with:
I suggested the following strategies for overcoming worry.
In my concluding sentence I said, "It's time to reduce our worries to a more manageable number—one worry at a time." That still makes good sense to me. So, I decided to revisit the subject this week—only I want to focus on stress that leads to worry. The essay is attached below. It is entitled, "Let It Go!" It comes to you with a prayer that with the Lord's help you will do exactly that. Tom Barnard P.S. Have you ordered your copy of my new book yet? The title is E-Couragement: Meditations for Leaders. It retails for $14.99, but you can buy it via Amazon.com for $8.90 plus $3.99 shipping. If you teach or preach, you will want to own one of these books. There are enough illustrations in the 68 essays for two years of sermons. At the Amazon.com website, search for the "New and Used" copies. (All copies are new). Let me know what you think about it. So far, reactions have been very positive. ______________________________________________________________________ Let It Go! Tom Barnard
decided to write about stress today. Not my stress. Yours. I went to my constant internet connection: Google.com. Was I surprised! There is no end of websites that promise relief from stress and worry. The product lines available are endless. One link led me to “Bluetrack, Inc.” They advertise having the “World’s Largest Stress Ball Selection.” If you don’t like any of their “innovative product line,” they will create one just for you. Outstanding! My very own stress ball! Why didn’t I know about this when I was in graduate school! (Answer: that was 30 years before the internet was invented by a former vice president). Sources for suggestions to reduce stress are everywhere on the internet. I found “Nine Tips for Managing Anxiety” (my favorite: “Don’t watch network news”). Then there was the site that offered “Stress Relievers: 25 Ways to Reduce Stress” (my favorite: “Drink Green Tea—Sign Up for the Free Weekly Newsletter”). Then there was the link that listed the “Areas of Life—and Responses—that Lead to Stress” (my favorite: “Stress and the Tax Season”). Last week a friend forwarded an email to me that listed “Thirty Ways to Reduce Your Stress.” Most of the suggestions were common-sense ideas: “Get enough rest and eat right.” I loved the photos of exotic flowers. My wife passes along great quotes she reads in the newspaper. One she read this week was from Parade Magazine. It was excellent. “The worst thing that happens to you can be the best thing for you, if you don’t let it get the best of you.” The most helpful idea source was Max Lucado’s book, Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear (Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2006). Lucado calls worry “the burlap bag of burdens.” He says, “It’s overflowing with ‘whaddifs’ and ‘howells.’” “Whaddif it rains at my wedding?” “Howell I know when to discipline my kids?” “Whaddif I marry a guy who snores?” “Howell we pay for our baby’s tuition?” “Whaddif, after all my dieting, they learn that lettuce is fattening and chocolate isn’t?” The author identifies this “burlap bag of worry” as being “cumbersome, chunky, unattractive, scratchy, hard to get a handle on, irritating to carry and impossible to give away.” He accurately points out that “worry divides the mind.” He continues, “Anxiety splits our energy between today’s priorities and tomorrow’s problems. Part of our mind is on the now; the rest is on the not yet. The result is half-minded living.” Jesus had a few things to say about worry. In Matthew 6 Jesus said, “I tell you, do not worry. Don’t worry about your life and what you will eat or drink. And don’t worry about your body and what you will wear…Can you add even one hour to your life by worrying?...So don’t worry. Don’t say, ‘What will we eat?’ Or, ‘What will we drink?’ Or, ‘What will we wear?’ People who are ungodly run after all of those things…So don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own.” (25-34) An excellent biblical source of help for worry is found in Psalm 23. In verse two the Psalmist declares, “He leads me beside the still waters.” Notice, he did not say, “He points out the way to go.” Instead, God is ahead of us, leading us. He is saying, “Come,” not “Go!” He is out there, clearing a path for us to follow, offering help when it is needed. Jesus said, “Give your 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, The Message). How is your “burlap bag of burdens”? As the commercial asks, “Wanna get away?” Let it go. Max Lucado advises, “Meet today’s problems with today’s strength. Don’t start tackling tomorrow’s problems until tomorrow. You do not have tomorrow’s strength yet. You simply have enough for today.” Good advice. |