Be Concerned, not Worried

Too often we human are indulged overtly in worrying about how things will work out, what will happen, and more when the thing is beyond our control.

Today I came across this thought-for-the-day which i think it's very meaningful and useful to keep us reminded that what we really need is only concern and not worry. Being concerned will keep us proactive in whatever we are doing and thinking, while being worried will bring us nowhere. Have a nice day. =)

I heard about a patient in a mental hospital who was holding his ear close to the wall, listening intently. The attendant finally approached. "Shh!" whispered the patient, beckoning him over. The attendant pressed his ear to the wall for a long time. "I can't hear a thing," he said. "I know," replied the patient, "it's been like that all day!"

We don't just worry about the things that are happening. We worry about the things that AREN'T happening to us! And if things have been going well, we worry because we're confident that our "luck" will change in the near future.

In the last TFTD, we started looking at Matthew 7:25-34 where Jesus talks about worry. He gives several reasons why we shouldn't worry. One of them is that worry doesn't do any good. "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" (Matthew 6:27). The NIV translates this verse, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

Whether you're talking about your height or the length of your life, there are some things in life that you can't do anything about.

Worry, by its very definition, takes place when we assume responsibility for things that are outside our control.

There is a difference between being concerned about the future and being worried about the future. Being concerned is when you have the ability to do something about a problem and you do it. Worry is when you can't do something about the problem, but you fret about it anyway.

There are some things that are within our control. For example, if you were to go away on a trip, you might be concerned about the safety of your home while you are gone, so you would lock the doors of your house, activate the security system (if you have one), maybe ask a neighbor to keep an eye on your place. There are precautions you can take, and you take them. That's not worry – it's just being careful.

But if you spend your vacation obsessing about your house the whole time you're gone, thinking it might burn down or be broken into even though you took precautions, that's worry. That's something you don't have control over.

And Jesus says that it's foolish to worry because worrying isn't going to change anything. If my house is going to burn down while I'm on vacation, it's going to burn down whether I worry or not. The only difference is that I cause myself a whole lot of stress along the way.

All worry is useless. It is powerless to accomplish anything of value. As the old saying goes, "Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere." It's so true.

If we're afraid of what might happen or we're worried about something that has already happened -- neither of which we can control or change -- we lose peace of mind. The truth is that most of the things we worry about will never happen.

It is said of the writer Thomas Carlyle that he built a mostly soundproof chamber in which to do his writing in silence. But one of Carlyle's neighbors owned a rooster that crowed several times in the night as well as the early morning. When Carlyle complained to the owner of the rooster, the neighbor said, "But it only crowed three times last night. It couldn't have been that much of a bother. Carlyle said, "But, if you only knew what I suffer waiting for that rooster to crow!"

We're the same way. We suffer a lot worrying about something that may or may not happen. And, in fact, if we were to keep a record of all of our fears throughout our lifetime, chances are good that 90 percent (or more) of those things we dreaded never came to pass. Worry simply doesn't do any good.