Worry Switch

Phones these days have a variety of settings. We can set our phones so that we have a preferred ring tone. When we need an alarm to remind us to rise and shine, an alarm can be set on our phone. If there are those who we do not want to hear from, we can turn on a setting so that their calls are blocked. Phones are amazing. But more amazing than our phones is our brain.

What would it be like if we had a switch inside our brains that we could use when we wanted to turn off the power of worry? 

I’ve had a long relationship with worry, and though it is not completely absent from my life, it is less dominating. But, it wasn’t always this way. Instead, worry used to be such a natural part of my life that if I wasn’t worried, I’d worry. Fretting made me feel as though I was being an attentive, vigilant, and responsible individual. It also made me feel anxious, agitated, and afraid. But, since I only knew how to worry, I knew nothing about the alternative.

Even though others would tell me to, “Take a chill pill,” “Relax,” or “Calm down,” their words only made me feel more anxious about not being so anxious.  

What would you think if I told you that we do have a switch inside our brains that we can use when we want to turn off the power of worry? Of course, it is not a physical switch nor does it come with a remote control. Instead, we turn off the power of worry when we choose to think about something other than what we are worried about. 

Choosing not to worry is a discipline I began practicing shortly after I stepped away from living independently of God. This independence of mine had led me one step away from throwing in the towel, giving up, and putting an end to my life. 

But, then God miraculously and graciously showed up in a way that I could not deny, disregard or ignore the reality of His presence. 

He invited me to accept His invitation for a relationship, one in which He would show me  how to live differently from the way I was living.  

Consequently, that was the starting point of my relationship with God. Since then, I’ve become more intimately acquainted with Him and my relationship is much more trusting than it was at the beginning. 

At the start of my journey of faith, I wrote down and memorized verses from scripture that helped to give me a different perspective. And still, to this day, when I begin to worry about something that may or may not happen in the near or far future, I don’t take a chill pill. Instead, I ruminate on the bare facts of truth. 

I’m told by God, through scripture, that I don’t have to be anxious for anything because I can unload the details of my worries by telling them to God. So what if he already knows them. There is something intimate about sharing them anyway. 

In exchange, I get the sense that God’s goodness surrounds me no matter what may or may not happen in the future. Then, peace, unlike anything offered from this world, encompasses me. Like a sentinel this peace from God guards my heart and mind so that even if I wanted to worry, I couldn’t.

Why Bother?

Why bother resetting our worry switch? Worry only perpetuates worry, but peace, well, that puts an end to perpetual worry.

P.S.  I wrote the story of my journey to forgiveness for those who, like me, know they need to change, but are not quite sure where to start. You can find A Heart’s Journey To Forgiveness at Redemption Press and Amazon.