Something I’ve been realizing about myself during this current season of my life is that I don’t worry as much. Going from worrying about every single thing in every single situation to not worrying is a pretty dramatic change.
With the 2 ½ month outreach to Thailand and Cambodia coming up on December 17th probably about a month or two ago I was mentally creating an outline of each possible situation, how it could go wrong, and how it would affect each individual on the team. Then I would make sub columns of how each person could react and how I would have a conversation with them and how to handle it like a great leader would and should. Clearly I analyze a lot and think overly of all the possibilities and outcomes which is a gift and a curse all in one package deal. Kind of like when you are buying a pack of socks and love one of the pairs but don’t necessarily like the other socks within the package but you still have to have all the socks if you are going to get that one pair you love (if that makes sense).
Thankfully God is teaching me how to monitor the depths of my thinking and how I allow it to influence my decisions. Especially with a list like that flowing through my mind (and that is just one specific area of the many things going on in my life). I need some sort of direction and balance for my thoughts because the lists are overwhelming. Will I base my decisions out of fear of the outcome or out of my trust in God (who by the way is in control, and holds my life in the palm of His hands)?
Tonight in a lecture I was sitting in on, our speaker Shaun Hoover put words to what I’ve realized, and that is “not worrying is a choice”.
Me, being the thinker that I am, went back and pin pointed some situations I was overwhelmed and worried about in the past, and re-observed the outcomes. In every situation I revisited, God proved himself faithful, trustworthy and a keeper of His promises. I reminisced the feelings of complete exhaustion from the amount of worry I inflicted upon myself, and the exhaustion I still experienced as the outcome came into conclusion. How much more energy and motivation could I have maintained if I would have only trusted God as much as I feared and worried what in the world I was going to do, and how on earth I would get through this? Man do I even know who God is?
So with that being said, I worry less. Why? Because I am choosing to worry less and I am choosing to spend my energy into trusting God. Why? Because time and time again He has proved himself faithful in all circumstances. Does that make it easier? No actually it is quite difficult at times not to worry, but I still have a choice to worry or not to.
In our life we have a lot of choices to make. Sometimes we don’t even think we have a choice in certain areas of life, and/or with certain ways of thinking and we believe it is just the way things are. So we settle for the way things have always been, and/or how we have always been taught.
My question is, what if we thought about our choices? Like the ones we have always made out of habit, or the ones that others have told us to make. What if we stopped settling for the norm and made some radical decisions, I think there would probably be some radical outcomes, don’t you think so? A good place to start is choosing not to worry. This doesn’t mean ditching your responsibilities and being completely careless, but it means when you come to a situation involving the unknown will you worry about the endless outcomes? Or will you trust in the Lord leaning not on your own understanding, acknowledging him in all your ways, as He makes your paths straight?
With the 2 ½ month outreach to Thailand and Cambodia coming up on December 17th probably about a month or two ago I was mentally creating an outline of each possible situation, how it could go wrong, and how it would affect each individual on the team. Then I would make sub columns of how each person could react and how I would have a conversation with them and how to handle it like a great leader would and should. Clearly I analyze a lot and think overly of all the possibilities and outcomes which is a gift and a curse all in one package deal. Kind of like when you are buying a pack of socks and love one of the pairs but don’t necessarily like the other socks within the package but you still have to have all the socks if you are going to get that one pair you love (if that makes sense).
Thankfully God is teaching me how to monitor the depths of my thinking and how I allow it to influence my decisions. Especially with a list like that flowing through my mind (and that is just one specific area of the many things going on in my life). I need some sort of direction and balance for my thoughts because the lists are overwhelming. Will I base my decisions out of fear of the outcome or out of my trust in God (who by the way is in control, and holds my life in the palm of His hands)?
Tonight in a lecture I was sitting in on, our speaker Shaun Hoover put words to what I’ve realized, and that is “not worrying is a choice”.
Me, being the thinker that I am, went back and pin pointed some situations I was overwhelmed and worried about in the past, and re-observed the outcomes. In every situation I revisited, God proved himself faithful, trustworthy and a keeper of His promises. I reminisced the feelings of complete exhaustion from the amount of worry I inflicted upon myself, and the exhaustion I still experienced as the outcome came into conclusion. How much more energy and motivation could I have maintained if I would have only trusted God as much as I feared and worried what in the world I was going to do, and how on earth I would get through this? Man do I even know who God is?
So with that being said, I worry less. Why? Because I am choosing to worry less and I am choosing to spend my energy into trusting God. Why? Because time and time again He has proved himself faithful in all circumstances. Does that make it easier? No actually it is quite difficult at times not to worry, but I still have a choice to worry or not to.
In our life we have a lot of choices to make. Sometimes we don’t even think we have a choice in certain areas of life, and/or with certain ways of thinking and we believe it is just the way things are. So we settle for the way things have always been, and/or how we have always been taught.
My question is, what if we thought about our choices? Like the ones we have always made out of habit, or the ones that others have told us to make. What if we stopped settling for the norm and made some radical decisions, I think there would probably be some radical outcomes, don’t you think so? A good place to start is choosing not to worry. This doesn’t mean ditching your responsibilities and being completely careless, but it means when you come to a situation involving the unknown will you worry about the endless outcomes? Or will you trust in the Lord leaning not on your own understanding, acknowledging him in all your ways, as He makes your paths straight?