Don't Worry...

The story of Martha and Mary is an important one because so many people associate with one of the two sisters: Martha, busying and fretting; Mary, sitting and listening.

I am asked this morning to consider those things that I am fretting about. What is stopping me sitting and listening to Jesus.

This is always a pertinent question for me as I am a recovering worrier. There was a point when I would lose sleep worrying about many things. Worrying even to the point of worrying about what I had forgotten to worry about! It sounds comic but it was debilitating - and very frustrating for those around me.

These days I tend not to worry to a great degree as I experienced a real healing from this a few years ago. To worry is to waste time often on things over which you have no control. By fretting over them they live rent free in your mind. The things that you do have control over deserve action - however menial they my seem. Even simply putting them on a 'to do' list will lift some of the worry burden. If you can do something immediately then do it. The obvious thing is to pray!

I often, when knowing I have to have a conversation with someone that may be delicate, commit myself to that by saying to them before the time comes 'we must have a chat about...' The worry over starting the conversation is gone, I'm committed to a point of no return, it lifts the burden.

So even though today I am challenged to consider what I am worrying about and the answer is 'very little', it does not diminish my commitment to responding to issues neither does it make me unconcerned. I simply am responding to worry in the way God taught me when he said 'look at the lilies of the field...' (Matthew 6:28)