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The Weekly Winning Thought

Problems Are Real … Worry Is Real … Jesus Is Real

By November 22, 2020No Comments

“Worries, worries pile up on my head…Woe is me I should have stayed in bed.” 

– The Everly Brothers (from the song “Problems”)

In the Fall of 1958, the pop music sensations, Phil and Don Everly released a song titled “Problems.” It stayed on the Hot Billboard 100 chart for 15 weeks, peaking at #2. In the song, the teenage protagonist of the story is wrought with problems of monumental proportions; he can’t get the car he wants, his grades aren’t good, his teacher doesn’t care for him, and his girlfriend “don’t like anything I do.”

Wouldn’t you love to trade the problems facing you today for paltry ones like these? What we once saw as monumental troubles are now trivial speed bumps that look like dots on the horizon from life’s rearview mirror. Actually those teenage worries we had then were real, just like our current worries; health, retirement, children, finances, etc. I remember those days and so do you. The problems that caused us to worry were real, but they seem insignificant today because we survived them. They have been replaced by today’s real problems and troubles.

Problems are unwelcomed traveling companions along the journey of life. Problems and troubles are the organisms that the parasites of difficulty, uncertainty, and doubt attach themselves. When a problem surfaces that exceeds our current skill set, our hope fades, fear enters, and despair gives birth to worry.

Problems are not our enemy – worry is. Jesus told his closest companions, “the twelve,” that they would have plenty of problems themselves here on planet earth, even though they were part of Jesus’s inner circle. But Christ followed up with an important addendum; “Take heart! I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33).” On another occasion Jesus told all who would listen to not worry about all the things everybody else was worried about. He said the cure to worry was to seek God and His Kingdom (see Mt 6:25-34). Worry is a preoccupation with the “what-ifs” of tomorrow and the regrets of yesterday.

John Newton (1775-1807), Anglican clergyman, former slave trader turned abolitionist, and writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” had this to say about worry:

“I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of sticks, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday’s stick over again today, and adding tomorrow’s burden to our load, before we are required to bear it.”

In the Everly Brothers song, the young man says to his girl that his problems and troubles “won’t be solved until I’m sure of you,” and “you can solve my problems with a love that’s true.” In essence, the teenage boy is saying to his girlfriend, “If I’m sure you love me with a love that is true, then I’ll get the car I want, the teacher will like me, my grades will improve, all my problems will be solved, and I’ll have no more worries.” Yeah, right.

Problems are real. Worries are real. Jesus is real.

The good news is that have an advocate whose love is true; one that is far more reliable than a teenager, and one that we can be sure of. He won’t let us down. In fact, He does just the opposite – He lifts us up. There is no need to carry sticks we don’t have to carry. We must give them back as a faith offering to our Lord Jesus Christ, who told us His “yoke is easy and His burden is light.” Teenage girls and boys can’t eliminate each other’s problems, and God won’t eliminate ours. God will allow problems to come our way so that we can hand them back to Him in prayer, trusting our Lord with the outcome. Worries need not pile up on our head. When you have Jesus there’s no need to stay in bed!

(Resources: For 100 scriptures that address the issue of worry, click here.)

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