Your Worries Can Wait

Matthew 6:27
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Did anyone raise their hand and say “I can!” in response to that question? Yeah, me neither.

Worries can overwhelm us as human beings. Life is full of stress, and decisions to be made, and priorities to sort out, and so much more.

But if we keep carrying our worries with us everywhere we go and letting them dominate our thoughts, they can run us down.

I came across this for the first time in a while and thought I’d share it here – if you’ve never read it before, it’s worth a minute of your time.

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

He continued, “And that’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.”

As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.

So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don’t carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.

This part broadens it a bit…

So my friend, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don’t pick it up again until after you’ve rested a while.

Don’t let your worries overwhelm you. Take a break from the stress, think positive, and pray often. It will all be ok, whatever it might be 🙂