ONE of the best things I’ve heard in my life is the expression “No worries!” — especially when said as a response to an apology for a glitch, a delay, an inconvenience, an oversight, a change in plans, an aberration of any sort. It always gives me a good, warm feeling when someone tells me “No worries!” It’s like a quick cascade of forgiveness and grace, given with such ease and lightness. I am forever grateful to the person who invented that expression. We know that the long version of it is — “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it!”
What generosity of spirit.
How good are you at forgiving? How good are you at NOT worrying? How good are you at being brave, forthright? How good are you at accepting criticism? How good are you at reacting to bad news? How resilient are you? How humble are you when you’re told that you made a mistake? How gracious are you when you’re wronged? How sensitive are you to the feelings of others? How much does it bother you when your reputation is at stake?
When your integrity is being questioned? How well do you take rejection? Betrayal?
Malicious innuendo? Deception?
The things I mentioned above are just some of the usual stuff that we love to worry and stew about. Since we are imperfect people living with other imperfect people, in imperfect situations, in an imperfect world, anything can go wrong. We have no absolute control over people, events, the weather, circumstances, etc. So it’s very tempting to worry. It takes discipline NOT to worry. It takes rock-solid confidence in God not to worry. And it takes an honest appraisal of ourselves, our situation, and our ability to cope with stress to come to this conclusion: it’s useless to worry.
Worrying is counterproductive. It depletes our energy. It robs us of our joy. It’s a waste of time. It makes us crabby, mean, and small-minded. It makes us miss the blessings that we already have; the blessings God gave us to enjoy. Worrying drains us and those around us.
Worrying, just like Pride, is actually an anti-God state of mind. Because a person who loves to worry is a person who doesn’t trust God.
That’s why the Bible tells us, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
I remember many years ago, my husband was in the food business. One of his companies had the job of feeding Vietnamese or Indo-Chinese refugees who were rescued from the seas near our country. Most, if not all of them, were severely malnourished, sick, deeply traumatized by the subhuman conditions in the boats they escaped in, physically and emotionally scarred by the hard life that forced them to become refugees.
In consultation with nutritionists, my husband’s company prepared carefully-planned menus to feed the refugees back to good health, with specific calorie counts specified by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or the UNHCR. It was a daunting task.
Almost every week, a new batch of malnourished, ailing, traumatized refugees arrived.
When the refugees got stronger, they were moved to a bigger facility in Bataan where their documents were processed by volunteer agencies from all over the world. For many months or even years, the refugees were taught life and job skills before being sent to their adoptive countries, mostly to the United States, one of the very few developed countries that opened its doors to the refugees.
My husband would periodically pay a visit to the refugee centre during meal times. His managers were there in shifts to manage the 24-hour daily operations. Early on, my husband noticed that as the refugees got stronger, they would gobble up their food so fast, then keep asking for more rice. So our staff gave them extra rice. But the refugees kept asking for more. They hoarded and put the cooked rice in their pockets, in little plastic bags or sundry containers that they brought with them to the Mess Hall.
My husband’s heart was torn with pity. So he instructed his cooks and food servers to give the refugees unlimited rice. Huge pots of rice were always lined up on the food counters during meal times. The refugees couldn’t believe their eyes: unlimited rice!!!
The head of refugee operations (a four-star major general) talked to my husband — he was worried that my husband would lose money because he was giving the refugees unlimited rice. My husband assured the general that it was okay, he wasn’t going to lose money – we were going to lessen our profit, yes, but my husband explained that we just wanted the refugees to be well-fed and have “no worries” about their food supply!
You see, my husband observed that the refugees were so worried that they’d starve or go hungry again — because some of them never made it to shore. Many of their family members and friends starved to death at sea. The refugees also had very little to eat in the countries they had escaped from. They worried about going hungry again, so they hoarded the cooked rice in their bunks, in cans and plastic containers, under their pillows. It probably helped them to sleep soundly — knowing that there was some cooked rice nearby.
There is a plethora of lessons to be learned from this refugee story. But one that stands out the most to me is this: if my husband, who is a flawed, imperfect human being (like all of us) could feel such deep compassion for those refugees (who could never repay him and who were strangers to him) — how much more God who is all-loving and all-kind?
As Rev. Edmund Chan of Singapore said, He is the God of the “how much more!”
Whatever crises we are in, however deep and dark the pit we’ve fallen into, however hopeless and frightening our circumstances seem to be — we need not worry because our God loves us so much that He promised to do this:
“I will find you in the desert, in the barren, howling wasteland. I will surround you and watch over you; I will guard you as the apple of my eye.” Look for it. It’s in Deuteronomy 32, verse 10. It’s a magnificent promise to claim.
Believe it. And stop worrying. Instead, PRAY, and ask for God’s wisdom — what should you do in your situation? How can you can solve your problem the right way? What wrong solutions should you avoid? Who can give you sound, godly advice? What passages in the Bible can serve as your guide and encouragement?
Each time we’re anxious, each time we’re tortured by worry, the first thing we should do is PRAY. Worrying is unproductive and counterproductive. Prayer is always productive, always pro-active, always protective. Something unimaginably powerful (but largely unseen) always happens in the spiritual realm whenever we pray.
So why waste your time worrying? The best antidote to worry is Prayer. But please make sure that you pray to the right person: Jesus Christ. While prayer might not always change our situations, God will always change us, transform us, and mold us whenever we pray. He teaches us to respond the right way to any situation. We are never alone, never helpless, never hopeless when we go to Jesus Christ.
When we pray faithfully, God is clearly telling us, “No worries! I’m going to take care of everything. Just watch me. Be still and know that I am God.”
