Wednesday; June 1

A while back I had an exposure to COVID. It might have amounted to what the CDC considered a “close contact” exposure, but even according to those accounts, it was minor. Yet interestingly something happened with me. Since I have a pretty busy June and July I started to contemplate what might happen if I got the virus. In all honesty, I wasn’t all that worried about getting really sick, my concern was what if I couldn’t travel here or speak there? How bad do I need to feel before investigating this further? When do I test? Do I even test? After a few days of pondering (obsessing) about things I was worn out!

Now, please hear me. I am not looking for medical advice – by the time this is published, the window for that contagion has long passed. My point is an awareness of what worry can do to us. I had no real reason to fear what might happen, but I still thought about it – and my thoughts weren’t healthy! Every time I coughed or if I didn’t feel 100% (which you never do at my age) it caused me to think about the possibilities. I had done everything I could do to protect myself from the virus – all I could do at that point was fret – but after a while I began to realize that wasn’t doing me any good! I began to hear the words of Jesus echoes in my head, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34). Anxiety (and the worry it leads to) are more often than not empty emotions. First, the bad most of us fear rarely materializes; however, even if it does, worrying about it doesn’t address the problem – it just uses up valuable emotional resources that could be applied if things really do go bad.

Let’s listen to Jesus’ guidance and focus our energies on the realities of today. It is all we can control anyway.

Think About It! 

Popular posts from this blog

Thursday; May 3

I have a fish tank that allows my three Bettas (Larry, Darrell and Darrell) to live in the same structure, but remain hidden from each other – well sort of.   When I go to feed the fish, I believe that one of the Darrell’s can sort of see that the other Darrell is getting fed and he will linger over on that side of the tank even after I put his food in his tank.   I have to tap on the side of the tank where his food is floating to help him refocus and eat.   I get the impression that he is so interested in what is going on in the other Darrell’s tank that he can’t enjoy his own food. I have been told that the brain of a fish is pretty small – which explains their inability to process “blessings”, but are we guilty of the same malady as Darrell?   Are we so worried (or consumed) by what happens to the people around us that we fail to realize what is going on with us?   Are we envious of the blessings that others are receiving and end up missing out on what we have been given?   Are w
Read more

Thursday; February 14

         While most of us are familiar with today being Valentine’s Day, there are some who actually refer to February 14 th as “St. Valentine’s Day”.  This title is often affixed to a criminally historic event known as “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” on February 14, 1929 in Chicago, but that is another story for another time.  Not knowing much about the history of “Saint Valentine” I did a little research and found out he was a Roman religious leader who was martyred in 269 AD.  According to my limited research Valentine was killed because of his encouragement of Roman men (especially soldiers) to marry which was in violation of Claudias’ edict that prohibited marriage to keep their minds singularly focused on their task of defending the Empire.  Somehow, from this beginning – and possibly embellished by Chaucer – St. Valentine became intertwined with the concept of romantic love.           I am not really sure how February 14 th became connected with love, but inspired by thi
Read more

Wednesday; December 6

What does it mean to be a leader? I subscribe to the belief that a leader is someone who seeks the best for others and works with them to achieve their potential. There are others; however, who define leadership as the ability to have a vision and the tenacity to get their own way. Leaders who are this way are often portrayed as having developed the maturity to manipulate people to do things their way. However, is the ability to drive people in our direction mature or is it childish? The Christians of the 1st Century came from a lot of different backgrounds and had to work hard to work together. As the Apostle Paul challenged Christians in the city of Ephesus he challenged them to accept individual differences, “… until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. “ (Ephesians 4:13). Bossiness was not to be viewed as a sign of maturity, a willingness to wo
Read more