Thoughts on Anxiety, Worry, Concern, Etc.

The daughter of one of my high school teacher's is headed for Papua-New Guinea for 5 weeks to work with missionaries there. Alone. Think her mom is worried about the situation? Yeah, so do I. I got to thinking about worry after she posted a comment about it on her blog. This is how I commented.

If my daughter were headed for PNG for several weeks and I couldn't be in control of the situation, I'd be wrestling with worry too! Of course not being in that situation doesn't stop me from worrying. Give me 30 seconds and an issue and I'll find something to worry about. Seriously.

My view of worrying changed when I read through A. W. Pink's study of the life of Elijah. How could a guy who had just seen God work in one of the most powerful ways in history be running for his life virtually in the next instant? Pink says that God brought this about to keep Elijah humble and dependent (that worked pretty well - "Elijah, what are you doing here?"). In other words, God was responsible for the worry because he wanted to shape Elijah in a way that he couldn't without the worry.

This doesn't mean that we are free to delve into our worries and let them take control of our lives. To me it means that our worries humble us; they give us a chance to demonstrate our dependence on God; they keep us from pride. In this sense then, worries can be God-given and good, they force us to run to our Father again and again and again...and for me again!