Needless Worrying

Have you ever been watching a movie and all of a sudden realized that something absolutely terrible is about to happen? It’s a very familiar scene: a family is driving down a country road, or a baby is sleeping calmly in her crib, or a person is contentedly crossing the street. All of a sudden, the music turns menacing, and you just know that any moment the other shoe will drop.

I feel like that plays out in my life more than I care to admit. And I don’t think that I am the only one. Take last week for example. I’d been having a particularly productive week. The house was clean, the dogs were happy, my task list was empty and I was prepared for any foreseeable commitments. I wish I could say that I was congratulating myself for being so on top of things. But I just couldn’t stop worrying about the report that I had just turned into my supervisor.

Time Better Spent

It had been the first time I was trusted to write a report like that on my own. (The results of this report could potentially have a profound effect on someone’s life.) I was going over and over in my head all of the negative things that my supervisor would say about my report and, and ultimately, me. These included, but were not limited to:

“This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen!”

“You are a poor reflection on the institutions that have educated you!”

“You’re going to ruin this poor kid’s life!”

What she ultimately told me was, “Can you change these two sentences? Otherwise, it was really good.”
I thought over all of the time that I spent worrying, anticipating a future I knew nothing about. That time could have been better spent on any number of things.

I don’t know what it is that makes it so difficult for some of us to experience joy without having to experience fear at the same time. But I think the solution lies in monitoring my thoughts and changing them to more adaptive thoughts. Luckily, the Bible has a suggestion on how to do just that:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8, NIV).

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Jael Amador writes from New York, New York.

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