Do you worry? Silly question, really. Every one of us worries, some more than others. Afraid of something happening that we don’t want to happen or something not happening that we do want to happen, our fear fuels the fruitless mental exercise of worry. Viewed from the basics of mathematics, what does fretting do to the equation of our lives?
Note about the image: These are silkworms for sale as food in a Korean market. Like problems, good can come from them, but they look gross and ugly to me.
My Mysterious Mind
Fun fact about me: I minored in mathematics for my undergraduate degree. My major was psychology. I loved the precision of solutions found in math and the complexity of the unknowable in human behavior explored in psychology. It’s a weird combination to hold in the same mind, in my mysterious mind.
My view of life is typically, by default, driven by these two disciplines, namely, mathematics and psychology. For example, the common human behavior of worrying can be viewed mathematically. Does it add, subtract, multiply, or divide? And what is the sum or product of putting worry into the equation of a day?
Worry enters the equation with a random thought of something unwanted that might happen. The arrival of worry is usually triggered by “What if?” What if I miss my plane? What if the car doesn’t start? What if the bank didn’t get my payment? What if I catch the illness from that person who sneezed next to me? What if it doesn’t rain? What if it rains too much? You get the idea. Fear of something “bad” starts the fretting, a review of unwanted scenarios.
I heard a speaker say that worrying must help because the things she worried about never happened. Hmmm... I doubt worrying kept the trouble away. In fact, the “bad” things that have happened in my life are usually not things I had been worried about. The worst things that have happened in my life have come out of left field, outside of my wildest expectations or fears. My usual response is “I didn’t see that coming.”
What about you? What fears trigger your mind to explore “What if’s” and the problems that might occur? Health problems? Financial difficulties? Damage to your stuff? Conflict with a loved one? When fear initiates worry, what is that doing to the equation of your day? At day’s end, what has fretting added or subtracted? Is the sum quality of your life greater or less than before you put worry into the equation?
Message of Mystery Acres
In a casual chat this week with a new colleague, I was telling him about our private campground, Mystery Acres. When I told him about the motorhome, cabin, and other things out there, he asked, in a shocked voice, “Aren’t you worried about someone messing with your stuff out there?” Good question. I used to be.
In the early days of leaving things unattended in the forest, I often wondered if anyone would vandalize our property or steal our possessions. I also thought about trees or tree branches falling on the motorhome or cabin, especially when we knew a storm had blown through the area. Those thoughts don’t come very often anymore. A few weeks ago, my husband was there to do some work in the shed. Forgetting to secure an aluminum ladder inside the locked shed, he left it outside, lying on the ground. I wondered if it would still be there when we visited the next time. It was.
Lately I have been saving my thoughts about the welfare of our property until our arrival there, when I am thankful each time that all is just as we left it. The real threats are rodents, who insist on finding their way into the shed, the cabin, or the motorhome. We have traps and such to keep the population to a minimum, but their relentless presence can’t be eliminated. So, I don’t worry about even those uninvited four-legged tiny guests. I put things I care about in tight plastic tubs; everything else I just clean before using. When I first step into the cabin or motorhome for each visit, I am thankful for the near absence of mice mischief.
I can’t make the forest better by worrying about the possessions I have out there. Worry doesn’t add to my enjoyment of ownership or the anticipation of our next visit. The only mathematics of worry in the forest is subtraction. In the rare possibility that someone or something damages what we own out there, I can deal with that loss if it happens. Until then, worry only subtracts from the wonders of owning this bit of forest and the infrastructure we entrusted there.
The message of Mystery Acres is to beware the mathematics of worry, specifically the subtraction of joy it brings. No, I am not worried about someone stealing our stuff or damaging it. I’m just thankful each time I visit, and things are just as I left them. It isn’t worth the investment of security cameras or lost time to worry about something that may or may not happen to my stuff. It’s just stuff.
Ancient Mystery’s Voice
“Jesus said, ‘Do not worry.’” (See Matthew 6: 25)
Jesus, my favorite mathematician, described the subtractive power of worrying. Matthew wrote down what Jesus said in the latter portion of chapter six. Jesus cautioned against worrying about food, clothing, or other needs. He didn’t say such worry would subtract from our joy, but He did say, “who, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life?”
If worry can’t add time to our lives, then the time we spend worrying is just subtracted from us. The net result of worrying is a loss of time. Therein lies the subtraction power of fretting. Beyond the loss of time is also the decreased sense of joy, because worrying certainly doesn’t help us feel more joyful. Quite the opposite. Worry subtracts time and joy.
But fear is really the problem. Fear triggers worry. Here I am reminded of the Bible verse: “Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18). Where love lives, fear cannot. If love is 100% of life’s equation there is no room for fear. How loved am I? How loved are you?
Hanging on the cross, Jesus stretched out His arms as far as He could and said, “I love you this much!” With that much love for us, where is there room for fear? With a God who died to pay for all the terrible things we have done or would ever do, how can fear enter the equation of our lives?
And, if that weren’t enough, that same God conquered death by coming back to life in a once-dead human body, demonstrating His victory over death. If death isn’t a problem for our loving God, what is? With death not something to worry about, what other, trivial things, are worth our fretting? None. Nothing in this life is worth allowing fear and its servant worry to subtract our joy from us.
Ancient Mystery’s Voice calls to us not to worry. We are loved too much to have anything to fear. With an equation full of love, the subtractive threat of worry can be crowded out, leaving only joy.
Living in Mystery
What does it mean to live in the mystery of worry, to minimize the subtractive power of fretting? First, it means recognizing that fear and its helper worry are thieves. Like a robber, fretting only subtracts; it has nothing to add. Beware the thief.
Next, fighting the subtraction of worry means using the additive power of gratitude and love. When “what if’s” come, greet them with words of thankfulness and knowledge of God’s love for you. Pray for knowledge of the perfect love that will crowd fear out of your mind. Practice saying “thank you” for the abundance of blessings in your life, and “thank You” to the One who will protect and preserve you no matter what happens.
Another approach to fighting worry, is to respond to “what if’s” with “Is there something I can do about this?” If yes, then take action rather than just spinning your mental wheels with joy-draining worry. Put your energy into making your equation have a positive outcome, rather than just surrendering to the subtractive work of fretting.
And, in the case of worry about imaginary problems, realize there are enough real problems to worry about. Why waste time and energy fretting about things that will probably never happen? Furthermore, recognize that the unexpected problems that do come bring blessings with them. A colleague just had his phone, and all his apps, hacked. The solution was to completely reset his phone, deactivate his social media, and redo all his passwords. The unexpected blessing? He recognized the wasted parts of his life that had been drained away by social media scrolling. This is just one small example of the myriad problems that come packaged with incredible blessings.
One of my favorite movie quotes about worry comes from “Bridge of Spies.” The lawyer, played by Tom Hanks, asked his defendant, a Russian spy, “Don’t you ever worry?” To which the spy calmly replies, “Would it help?” And there’s the thing about worry. It doesn’t help. Furthermore, worry can make things worse. If, for example, I worry about not having something to write, that worry causes me to have writer’s block.
Living in the mystery of the mathematics of fretting is to know that worry only comes to steal. Subtracting of our time and our joy, worry drains our life’s equation and adds nothing of value for its cost. We are loved too much to worry. Even our problems come packaged in blessings. Instead of worrying, add more gratitude into your daily equation. Adding in more “thank you’s” will multiply your joy. Now that’s what I call some marvelous mathematics!
Connecting with Mystery
Dear Lord of All Mystery, I confess to worrying about imaginary problems, failing to trust Your tremendous love for me. Help me to recognize when fear triggers my fretting and subtracts my time and my joy. Thank You for loving me more than I can comprehend where problems only come packaged with blessings. Amen.
Notes from Dr. Mac
If you want to do your own investigation of the scriptures I use, I suggest you go to Bible Gateway. This free online version of the Bible allows a search of words or phrases in various translations. I encourage you to meditate on the sixth chapter of Matthew, from verse 25 to the end.
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