Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
—Philippians 4:6
The increasing complications and complexities of our lives and culture seem to move us further and further away from even the slightest possibility of care-free, worry-free living.
We worry that we won't have enough money, that our children will get into difficulty, that we won't accomplish all the tasks on our to-do list, that terrorism will continue to rise, that the moral fabric of our society will continue to decline, that we won't be able to stick with our diet, that our medication won't work. The list goes on and on.
We know intellectually that all of the energy we put into worrying is as useless as trying to fill a cavern with teacup. In the end, our worrying does not change the situation—it only keeps us diverted from living fully and freely.
What if even a portion of the energy we spent on worrying was spent in prayer? Not the kind of prayer that we think requires patterned formulas to be effective, but the kind of prayer that opens our heart to the Holy One whenever a worry, a care, or a fear finds its way into our consciousness.
What if instead of allowing our mind to chew on our problems as a cow chews a cud, we simply told heaven about our difficulties and thanked heaven for hearing? We might find our own heart in a richer state of peace, and we might be surprised to find that, when we least expected it, heaven answered with a miracle.
O God, when I feel as troubled as a bubbling pot, turn down the fire until I become still.
