Like a Rocking Chair

Friday - November 12th

Scripture to Read Today: Luke 12:22-34

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Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?

Luke 12:5

Humorist and author Erma Bombeck used her gift of humor to give insights into the everyday things of life. One of my favorite quotes from her is one I used this last weekend in my message on worry from Luke 12:22-34. Bombeck said, "Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do, but it never gets you anywhere."

What Bombeck said is so true. Worry takes a lot of energy, mental space, and emotional capital, but it gets us nowhere. At the heart of worry, anxiety, and even fear is a deep frustration. That frustration settles in and takes over our hearts and minds because we want to control variables we cannot control. Some of the variables only God can control. But, when we envision a particular outcome and fret over how it might not happen, we allow worrying to convince us things could turn out differently if we were in control.

How frustratingly foolish of us is it to try to control what we can't! But we all do it to some extent. Lots of silliness in worry and its awful, overwhelming nature in our lives. The silliness, of course, is not a funny one, but a sad one.

Jesus made it clear in His Sermon on the Mount message that none of us can add one hour to our lives (Luke 12:25). Our days are numbered by our God. We don't control the variables of time, death, or the timing of death. Since that is true, why do we waste so much time trying to control what we can't? That is when we become like a rocking chair in our handling of worry. We exert a lot of energy and time trying to control what we cannot. So like the rocking chair, we have a lot of movement but no real progress.

Today, pray and give back to God the control He already has, but which you have convinced yourself you could get (which you can't). Tell him out loud what it is you are trying to control that you cannot control. Maybe that is time, other people, circumstances, and even your own impulses. Be honest with God about what it is you try to control and why.

Worry exerts a lot of energy, spends a lot of time, and makes a lot of movement, but it advances nothing!