Hogwash. Worry is an emotion that can cause serious problems. What was this guy thinking? Well, he knows we all experience worry or at least the feeling that worrying is the thing to be doing or experiencing. Our Pastor had a sermon a few weeks ago where he told us that a person’s feelings don’t make something true. If it feels right, it might be really wrong.

From Wikipedia “Worry refers to the thoughts, images, emotions, and actions of a negative nature in a repetitive, uncontrollable manner that results from a proactive cognitive risk analysis made to avoid or solve anticipated potential threats and their potential consequences.”

That sure is a mouthful of babel from “a doctor who can’t do you no good” as they used to call Doctor’s with PhDs as opposed to real Doctor’s with MDs. I never really understood how the title of doctor and the “job” of doctor both settled on the same term, but its amazing how prejudice people could be back in the day.

So I think what the author is trying to tell us is that we need to take over our minds and force the “proactive cognitive risk analysis” to come up with an action plan for those things that are “anticipated potential threats and their potential consequences.” What I think the author is not recognizing is all the uncontrollable potential threats and consequences in life that we have no control over.

My wife has a shirt that says “Suck it up buttercup.” I always think of this phrase as a reaction to inaction due to worry. It has its place, but it implies that an individual can overcome all of these thoughts, worries, and emotions on their own. A false paradigm of humans being in control of their fate. Nothing can be further than the truth. In reality, the world is set up for humans acting on their own to fail, miserably.

The key to understanding the world is the realization that the story is not about you, it’s about God.  God created the universe for His purpose. He created people to be in a relationship with Him that glorifies Him. Our success in any situation is due to either our properly using the skills or gifts He gave us or due to our willingly accepting His control over our fate and casting our worries at Christ’s feet.

So action is one response to worry, but another is to give them away and move on. It is up to us to discern when God is calling us to action or to reliance on Him, and He has given the believer the Holy Spirit to do so. So be human, tackle your problem, just make sure it’s one you can handle or do the wise thing and get help.