TOMORROW’S SUNDAY

Worry. We all do it from time to time, often when we feel something bad is going to happen. We all know that churned up feeling, that disquietude in our souls. Also, we know just how exhausting all that fretting can be. So, given the rollercoaster of emotions, the question has to be ‘Does it achieve anything?’ And if it doesn’t, why do we do it? St Francis de Sales, a great bishop of the 17th century, once described worry as an ‘ill-regulated desire to be delivered from evil’, illregulated because the flap it causes only makes the situation worse. He saw that worry puts an emotional block in the way of getting the problem sorted. This has also been the experience of countless people down the ages. Thomas Jefferson wrote, ‘How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.’ Likewise, Mark Twain said, ‘I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.’ And someone once described worry as like being on a rocking chair – it gives you something to do but doesn’t get you anywhere. That’s similar to what Jesus taught when he said, ‘Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?’ The way we worry is very telling about what we believe about God. Can we really say that we trust in his plans for us when we are so pent up with anxiety and terror about the future? How much better would it be to learn to trust that God will get us through the present and save tomorrow for another day? Some more advice from St Francis de Sales: ‘Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow; the same Everlasting Father who cares for you today, will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.’