The grip of worry

In the corridors of power in Russia, a curious anecdote about Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev and his mother unfolds. The story is told that the late Premier wanted to impress his old mother from Ukraine. First, he showed her through his sumptuous apartment in Moscow. Worried, she said nothing. Then he drove her in his chauffeured black limousine to his dacha or second home in Usovo, showed her the marble reception rooms, and treated her to a fine lunch of caviar and crab. She still appeared unimpressed but quite worried. So, he flew her in his private helicopter to his hunting lodge in Zavidovo, where a fire crackled in the massive fireplace of the banquet room.

She seemed increasingly ill at ease. At last, he said, “Well, Mama, what do you think?” She hesitantly said, “It’s nice, Leonid, but what if the Communists return?” Needless worry. She doesn’t even know that her son is head of the largest communist country at the time. That’s the thing about worry. They make the worrier miss out on many things they could have enjoyed.

The legendary author and speaker Zig Ziglar said, “Worry has been described as interest paid on trouble before it comes due.” Worry is like a rocking chair; it requires a lot of energy and gets you nowhere. Leo Buscaglia said, “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow; it only saps today of its joy.” The late Dr. Charles Mayo states, “Worry affects the circulation and the whole nervous system. I’ve never known a man who died from overwork, but I’ve known many who have died from doubt.” Doubt always creates worry; in most cases, lack of information raises doubt.

Mathematically speaking, it doesn’t make sense to worry. Psychologists and other researchers say that roughly 40 percent of what we worry about will never happen, and 30 percent has already happened. Additionally, 12 percent of our worries are over unfounded health concerns. Another 10 percent of our worries involve the daily miscellaneous fretting that accompanies nothing. That leaves only eight percent. Plainly speaking, many are worrying 92 percent of the time for no good reason, and if Dr. Mayo is correct, it’s killing many.

So, how do you deal with Worry? Delayed flights? Unmet quotas? Doing a presentation before the Board, balancing your checkbook or even the rumor going on in the organization of an impending retrenchment, etc? Do not allow your imagination to go out of hand. Before you know it, your mind will begin to entertain many negative thoughts. Many folks worry about things that never happen. Many have even made worrying a daily habit such that they worry about not having anything to worry about.

Elizabeth Cheney writes a poem: Said the Robin to the Sparrow.

“I should really like to know,

Why these anxious human beings

Rush about and worry so.”

Said the Sparrow to the Robin,

“Friend, I think that it must be,

That they have no Heavenly Father,

Such as cares for you and me.”

Listen to the words of the Master. Jesus Christ says: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. It seems like the birds got it right.

(Francis Kong’s podcast “Inspiring Excellence” is now available on Spotify, Apple, Google, or other podcast streaming platforms.)