Lay Down Your Worries

A friend from Florida recently rang my cell phone while I was out and about.
  
“Are you wearing a mask?” she asked.
  
“No,” I said.
  
“Down here, if you go out without a mask and a policeman sees you, you get a fine, and if you go out again without a mask, and he sees you, you get two days in jail.”
  
People are wearing masks in attempts to avoid a coronavirus that’s spread by “human-to-human transmission via respiratory droplets.”
  
“The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic is a pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2),” according to wikipedia.org. “The disease was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019.” 
  
I drove in the rain to the Dill Creek Bi-Lo at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 23, 2020. (Seniors get a special hour to shop from 8-9:00 a.m., M-F, at Bi-Lo because of the coronavirus scare.)
  
I tried to stay a social distance (six feet) away from shoppers.
  
Finding no iceberg lettuce, I bought cookies, figuring I’d wait until the coronavirus died down before going on a diet.
  
Some people are gaining weight during the coronavirus outbreak.
  
“Overeating is a mechanism for coping with whatever negative emotions people are experiencing in their lives, just like excessive sleep, heavy exercise, and alcohol are coping mechanisms,” someone said.
  
The coronavirus outbreak has stirred up fear and worry in many folk. I come from a long line of worriers and need to “have a little talk with Jesus” quite often. If I don’t pray, I worry. 
  
“God created us as emotional people,” Tim Allchin says. “Our emotions are given by God to put us ‘into motion.’ Fear is a God-given emotion.  Anxiety is what we feel when our bodies respond to the emotion of fear. Worry is the thought process that mulls over and gives power to the object of our fear.”
  
Everyone worries.
  
“Jesus taught us to examine our fear, worry, and anxiety as clues into who we worship or what we worship in any given moment,” Allchin says.    
  
My anxiety reveals what I value, Allchin says, and it reflects my view of God.
  
Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matt. 6:25).
  
Tim Keller writes, “Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.”
  
Keller reminds us that “it takes pride to be anxious.” My anxiety may indicate that I think I know more than God knows and will trust my own judgment before I trust God.
  
My anxiety is related to my “trust level” in God, Allchin says, adding, “God calls me to overcome anxiety by keeping my focus on trusting Him with my trials.”
  
I worry most when my focus is on myself. Some introspection is helpful, but too much leads to worry and depression. We may agree with this statement: “There’s always someone worse off than I am.” But when we worry, we often quit reaching out to others.  
  
“My anxiety is redirected best by compassionately serving others,” Allchin says. “One of the consistent themes throughout the gospels is the call to care for those in need and share the good news of what Jesus has done for us.”
  
Some Faith Temple Church folk are “self quarantined” because they have health conditions that could make them more likely to suffer complications if they become affected by a coronavirus. Pastor Burrows contacts them, but other friends can reach out to them via cards, phoning, e-mailing, or Facebooking. 
  
Barbara Robertson (my fiancee) and I drove recently to my daughter Janelle’s house. Janelle and Terry, her husband, live in Taylors, SC. Terry works from home, and Janelle teaches first grade at Blythe Elementary. From her home, Janelle maintains some “virtual contact” with her students and their parents because Greenville County Schools are closed for this school year because of the coronavirus. From the road, I called on my cell phone.
  
“Janelle, we’re outside in the car,” I said. “We’re not here to come in. We just want to say hello from the car.”
  
Janelle soon popped just her head out the house’s front door.
  
“How are y’all?” she said. “I’m not dressed too well.
  
We exchanged greetings and then motored on out of her subdivision. Seeing Janelle’s face seemed to take a few worries off my mind. I’ll need to give the rest of my worries to the Lord.