February 2002

Matthew 6:25-34

How many of us are fully engaged in life? How many of us are living in the moment, staying attuned to the wonder of daily experience? How many of us are using a positive attitude to overcome life's challenges?

If you're making progress in your life, you are really alive.

In my mind's eye at this moment, I am envisioning a man I know very well. Let me describe him to you. His brow seems to have permanent furrows. The muscles of his face and neck are so taut, they resemble rocks. His gait is slow and measured. His head is always down and he seems uptight and preoccupied.

Now, you don't know this man. He is not a member of this church. But I really do know him and when I describe him, I am not exaggerating.

His problem is he has become an expert on worry. I don't mean that he is a psychiatrist or psychologist who has studied worry. I mean that he has invested an enormous amount of time and energy to become a proficient worrier. What does he worry about? Everything - his family - bad weather at the wrong time - his boss, whom he says he cannot trust - his health, certain that one day a serious illness will afflict him.

Ironically, this man attends his church nearly every Sunday morning. That doesn't compute.

Now that I have described this man, I would like to ask you three questions. The first question is, do you know anybody like him? The second question is, how much is he like you? And the third question is, how much of a worrier are you?

We need to ask these questions. Because worry is a devilish demon. Unless we chase it from our lives, it has immeasurably destructive powers. Yet we have the power to decide that we will never again allow worry to ruin another day of our lives, or even another moment. We can decide that we will not allow it to ruin another event or another relationship.

Some years ago, I heard a story about the comedian Jerry Lewis. He was very worried about problems in his body and life, and he was visiting his doctor.

His doctor said to him, "Jerry, I want to tell you something. Don't worry."

And to that, Jerry Lewis responded, "Doc, how do you 'don't worry'?"

How do you "don't worry"? That's a very fascinating question, isn't it?

I have thought long and hard about it. My first thought is, if you want to stop worrying, you have to have the desire to do so. Something within you has to say, "I do not want to allow worry to continue to affect me as negatively as it has been."

My second thought is, it is necessary to confront the fact that you are worrying. I'm surprised that the topic of worry is off-limits for so many people. I'll talk to people involved in the process of growing and stretching, but when the conversation turns to worry, they seem to say, "You don't get to touch me and my worrying." For them, worry has become a companion and a friend. It's not a good friend, but it's dependable and predictable. I don't understand why these people are so devoted to worry, except when I remember this:

When you feel sorry for yourself, have you noticed how sweet is the misery?

Worry gives us the pleasure of feeling bad. It also offers a way of gaining a certain satisfaction from other people. We anticipate how satisfying it will be to say to someone else, "I didn't sleep all night long because I was so worried about you!" Noble as it might seem, worrying is an ineffective way of dealing with problems. It doesn't work very well.

So, if you want to get rid of worry, you've got to take it out of the back pocket, take it out of the cellar, take it out of the freezer and allow yourself to process it and get beyond it.

My third thought is, believe that you really can overcome worry. If every one of us in this sanctuary set a goal that we would no longer worry one year from today, we would come in here at that time walking light and bright; experiencing a much better life.

How can we build on these thoughts, and take action on getting worry out of our lives? The first suggestion comes from Jesus, when He said:

"Don't worry. Use your head. Get perspective."

You're probably thinking, "Arthur, Jesus didn't say that! Where does that come from?" I'll tell you where - the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus stood on the top of that hill and offered this advice:

Look at the birds of the air... they know that their Father is going to take care of them, that their needs are going to be met.

When I've visited that hill where Jesus stood when He delivered His sermon, I've seen those same birds flying all about, up and down. They go to the ground to snap up something to eat, and then soar up again into the sky. They dance with the wind. They have a great old time. They know that their Father is going to take care of them. If those birds worried about anything, they would be extinct by now.

And then Jesus said,

Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don't toil. They don't worry about a thing. And yet God takes good care of them. Even Solomon, in all of his glory, cannot compete with them.

Then Jesus asked the people a thoughtful, thought-provoking question:

How many of you, by worrying, can add one hour to your life?

You can't do it. So now you know what I'm referring to when I say that Jesus said, "Get perspective. Use your head."

See things as they really are. Begin to work on yourself, so that you don't worry any more. Because you don't have to worry. In giving this counsel, Jesus used an analogy from natural life. I'd like to use an analogy from nature too. On a recent summer vacation, my wife and I went on a safari in Kenya. Late one afternoon, our guide took us out to the plains, where we spotted a lioness lying by a bush. We stayed there for a long time, watching her. After a while she got up, slowly stretching, pushing, pulling every muscle in her body, ever so deliberately. She was like a house cat, only ten times larger.

And then I saw first-hand why lions and lionesses are the kings and queens of the animal world. As that lioness began to walk, she was really swaggering. Her slow swagger said, "I am the queen of the animals. I fear nobody. I am going with complete confidence. I worry about nobody." We followed as she slowly paraded down the path.

She passed by a small herd of wildebeests. Every single one of them stood erect, at attention, frozen in place. Not a twitch. Not a muscle moved. Not an eyelash blinked. They were like statues, staring at that lioness. We continued following behind, and saw the lioness pass near a group of antelope. Looking so strong and powerful, they too stayed frozen like statues, in place.

Did these animals have something to worry about? Yes, they did. They were fortunate that the lioness was not hungry. Otherwise one of them would have been dinner.

Yet what did those animals do? And this is the key. They were awake and alert. If they had shown fear, that fear would have evolved into worry. And you know what worry means. It comes from the Middle-English word wyrgan, which means to strangle or choke. If they had strangled or choked, they would have been rendered ineffective and inept. They might have attracted more attention from the lioness. But they survived because they were alert.

So when a problem challenges you, don't worry. Pay attention. Be awake. Notice what's going on and decide how you're going to deal with the challenge.

So how do you not worry? You have to have the desire. You've got to believe that you can overcome worry. You've got to do what Jesus said, by using your head and getting perspective. And then you've got to press the "alert" button to let yourself know that you are worrying and that there is a better way.

But there's one other thing we need to discuss in regard to worry, which makes all the difference in the world:

Worry is a spiritual problem.

When I say "spiritual problem" I mean that worrying is really a failure to trust. When you worry, you're not trusting something. And, for people of a spiritual mind, it means that you are not trusting God. You're not trusting that God knows God's business, that God can take care of the situation and will work with you to help you through it. So focus on God.

I remember one Easter Sunday morning a number of years ago when I was just starting to preach here. We were in Dr. Peale's office. The ministers gathered, and Dr. Peale said, "I'm going to church today," which meant he was going to attend the first service, where I was giving the sermon.

And I said, "Please don't come."

"I can go to church when I want to go to church," he responded.

I was scared to death. I was choking up. It really was getting to me. Then as I was entering the sanctuary alongside the late Reverend Donald Ostroth, he looked at me and said, "Arthur, don't think Peale. Think Jesus." That comment put me on the right track, because I began to focus on God, and I began to separate from the strangulation and the worry.

Let me go to Scripture now, to Isaiah. Have you been to the Book of Isaiah lately? I'm going to suggest that you take some time - many days, even weeks - to read it through. You will come across phrases that will contain profound messages for you. Here are some that pertain to worry:

From Isaiah 41:

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

Those words tell us not to worry. God will be with us. And then we find these words in Psalm 55:

Cast your burden upon the Lord and the Lord will sustain you.

And then Paul, in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, penned these six extraordinary words to hear and absorb:

My grace is sufficient for you.

God's love, kindness, interest, generosity, and trust in us are all that we need. This idea is also expressed in Paul's letter to the Philippians:

Rejoice in the Lord always. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your request be known to God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind.

In our lives, we know there are certain things over which we have no control. We can't control other people. We can't control events. We can't control situations. But we can control something vitally important about ourselves. We can make the decision to keep worrying from ruining another day of our lives. We can trust that God will take us into His hand and do what is needed and bring us through. Let us pray.

Lord, bless us. Help us. Lift us out of the traps of worry and bring us into the fullness of love and life, and help us to trust. In Jesus' name we ask. AMEN