"Can any of you
add one moment to his life span by worrying?"
Matthew 6:27
When I was a teenager, and I was living in the Atlanta area, Hurricane
Opal blew through the area. Many of you will remember Opal as a particularly
vicious storm that was still powerful as it reached my parent's home in
Marietta. I remember watching the trees whip back and forth and crash all
around us. My Mom and I made a bee-line for the safety of the basement. We sat
down in the dark worrying that this might be the end. Meanwhile my dad was
sound asleep upstairs in his bedroom without a worry in the world. The next
morning it looked like a bomb had gone off. There were trees everywhere but
none had hit the house!
Why did my Dad remain so calm in the face of the storm? Well, two
reasons. One, he was from the Mobile/ Brewton area originally, so hurricanes
were nothing to him and second, and more importantly, he felt if it was his
time that the Lord would call him home or protect him otherwise.
Now, I am not recommending not seeking shelter in a storm, but my dad
faced down the storm as David faced down Goliath with confidence. Both knew
that their God was bigger than the storm or obstacle before them.
How do we face the storms in our life? Do we waste days worrying? I know
several people in my life who will worry about something even when there is
nothing to worry about yet. We worry about a potential doctor's prognosis or
possibly an expensive bill for the car or the house repair. I admit that
sometimes I am guilty of it as well.
But when I read the above verse from Matthew, Jesus' words hit home.
What good has worrying done for me? Has it helped with finances? Found a new
home or a better job? No. Not once. As I read once, "all worrying does is
make us forget that our future really isn't our future: it's God's." We'll
experience our future, but we don't possess it or have control over it, God
does. And that's a good thing. The future is God's because He's the only one
who can control it.
I think of my Dad often and when I am facing a storm I remember the
confidence he had in the Lord when staring down his.
So let us rest in this: the future is God's, so instead of worrying
about it, we should trust the One who controls it.
Amen.
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