When Worry is Warranted
The biblical admonitions against worrying are numerous, and I’m very often convicted about my anxieties because I’m predisposed to looking ahead and feeling overwhelmed. My roles as mom, business owner, and human on earth present me with plenty of fuel for my ruminations. But today, I had a few thoughts about worry’s sources, and why sometimes, our concerns aren’t the kind of worry the bible calls fruitless.
There a couple categories of worry that I see out in the world: The What If? worries and the Was I Wise? variety.
What If? Worries
Most people who have basic familiarity with scripture have heard Jesus’s teaching: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34
I consider this one of the verses related to my first category of anxieties. “What if…?” looks ahead to circumstances beyond our human control. What if there’s a natural disaster? What if the stock market bottoms out? What if my husband gets into a fatal car crash? No amount of rumination on such things can prevent them, and they only rob you of peace by dwelling on them. It doesn’t take scholarly aptitude to decide this worry is fruitless and clearly not a way God would have us use our time.
If you have clothes on your back today, what’s the use in worrying they’ll go up in flames if lightning hits your house? Barring uncontrollable circumstances, there’s little chance about what’s fine today will vanish tomorrow. That will be the trouble for its own day, for you to deal with if it befalls you.
Was I Wise? Worries
But the second category of worry, what I’m calling the “Was I Wise?” type is a little trickier. These worries stem from actions or inactions, where wise counsel might have headed off a current stressor.
“What if I lose all of my investments (because I sunk everything into a single, high-risk endeavor?)”
“What if my teenager gets into a car crash (because I didn’t fix the issue with the vehicle we share?”)
“What if my home is destroyed by a hurricane (because I live in a poorly built structure in a flood zone?”)
These sorts of worries bring to mind another very familiar verse: She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. Proverbs 31:25
Again, one need not have studied the bible long to have encountered this piece of wisdom. This very rudimentary understanding of scripture tells us—if you’re worried about preventable issues, maybe that’s a sign you should do the hard thing that would be wise. The Proverbs 31 woman didn’t get to the place of laughing at the future by whistling past wise preparation because “God would take care of her.” Not worrying isn’t the same as behaving recklessly.
Some kinds of worry are the cattle prod that gets our attention. The problem arises when we just stand there and let the situation prod away.
In worrying situations where we have any agency, God gives us minds so we can act. It’s easy in this first world to claim we’re stuck due to financial or social barriers, but the greater obstacle is almost always our own will. Perhaps a situation where I am worried now would have been preventable by wisdom in the past, but that doesn’t mean I get to sit in ashes about it. The Proverbs 31 woman has children that are now clothed in scarlet because she spent the requisite time at the spinning wheel to make it so.
Now, if you are tempted to dismiss this post as shaming anyone for past foolishness, (I would be the pot calling the kettle black, first of all) or to say it misses a lot of scenarios that fall between the two types, consider that God knows how to address that as well.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6
Whether God meets a need, grants wisdom, brings forward members of his church to assist, or works a miracle, there’s literally nothing we can’t bring to him. For worrying problems that persist, the ball is in our court—to act, to meditate on God’s faithfulness and redirect our fretting, to wait with the fruits of the spirit in the forefront of our thoughts and behavior. What problem, however real, can’t be softened by peace, patience, or self control?
In the times where I have very real concerns, even if not by my hand, but in my lap, time spent worrying always has a better return if invested in scripture-guided action. Whether that action is to linger in God’s word in search of supernatural peace or to step beyond what earthly actions haven’t worked so far, God has provided assurance for any eventuality: …for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am…I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:11b and 13
In this busy holiday season, I pray you are able to seek God’s goodness that prevents stress from metastasizing into worry. Always remember, He hears and knows, and God’s people want to help.