What a difference a day makes...

A single day, 24 hours, is, in the overall scheme of things, not very long.  And yet, that same 24 hours can make all the difference in the world when you are waiting for something to happen.  If you are waiting for a loved one in an intensive care unit, it can be the difference between life and death.  When you are waiting on a job interview, it is the difference between employment or another day of sending out resumes.  It can be the difference between being pregnant and being a mother, or perhaps an animal being in a shelter or having a forever home.  Change causes fear, and fear causes worry.  Even positive changes can cause uncertainty, and negative events can cast a pall over our whole life.

Things seem to be moving faster than ever these days.  It is scary how quickly things can unravel when you think they are set in stone.  There is, in short, a lot to worry about in this crazy world.  But there is a flip side to this, as well.  With uncertainty, there is also hope.  And where there is hope, there is possibility.

I am a worrier.  Anyone who knows me well will acknowledge that I worry about everything all the time.  In fact, I can take worry to a whole different stratospheric level than most people, and it doesn't even have to be life and death.  What all this worry does, however, is ignore the hope.  And I think that is where I, along with so many other people, have gone wrong.

God did not create us, any of us, to spend our days lost in worry.  We were created in his image, the result of his perfect vision.  Our mission is to glorify God and give thanksgiving for all he has done.  If we are so wrapped up in the worry of life's trivialities that we cannot even appreciate the journey, we are not able to glorify the God of all creation.  It is a dishonor to him to waste our precious earthly time lost in worry.

In Matthew 6:27, we are told,

"Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

Speaking from personal experience, every hour I spend in worry diminishes my ability to live a Godly life.  It steals my trust in the one who created me, and prevents me from fully living the life I am meant to enjoy.  God has promised me, just as he has promised each one of us, that he will provide, and when the time comes that our work on earth is done, he will call us home to his loving embrace.  This is not a moment to fear, but the moment of reward.

Christians are not free from sorrow and pain.  On the contrary, we are all human, and suffer the ills of mortality in common experience with all people from every time and place.  But when we must face the difficulties which come to every life, we have the promise of hope from the one who is never going to fail to help us get through even in the hardest times.  The promise of the resurrection is unending and eternal.  It is the best medicine for the flailing heart and soul of the chronic worrier.