What’s Eating You? No, Really.

My neck is killing me. (The lavender-laced, rice-filled warming thingy helps a bit. )

My massage therapist says my neck muscles are so strained from being in this position they have ridges in them.
Ridges? That cannot be good.

Protocol dictates I come see her once a week for the next six weeks. I’m grateful for insurance (exclamation point) and I will definitely look forward to the relaxation time, but what about the in-between times?

Without the soothing music and comfortable table and the healing touch of therapy?

I’m left wondering–why am I so stressed?
What is causing this perpetual stretching forward that ignites my muscles into overdrive?
I think it’s the fretting. The worry about things I cannot control.

There is much that could cause concern living in this fallen world.

Supreme Court decisions declaring blatantly that wrong is right.

National organizations standing by rulings that are anti-God.

Turmoil in Egypt, acquittal verdicts that incite protests, the list goes on.

The fretting and worry have extended to the blogosphere on issues secular and sacred. Opinions have been many–volatile voices and views have been volleyed all over;

righteous anger abounds and many people are torn to take sides.

Closer to home, there is my own flesh warring against my spirit (and my spouse)and we’ve had 40 years of practice. We should know better.

This stresses me out and makes me fret. Causes me to wonder if I’ll ever change.
Is God really in charge? Really?

The other morning I turned back to Psalm 37.

King David declares 3 times in the first 8 verses “do not fret”.

I looked up the definition of ‘fret’ in Merriam Webster’s online dictionary.
The words brought a discomfiting and illuminating discovery.

“‘fret’—a) to eat or gnaw into, corrode. Also, fray, to make by wearing away a substance, (‘the stream fretted a channel’), b) to cause to suffer emotional strain, vex,
c) to affect something as if by gnawing or biting, to grate.”

King David spoke about our penchant for fretting in Psalm 37:

“1 Do not fret because of those who are evil

or be envious of those who do wrong;

(No, this sad state of affairs will not last forever)

2 for like the grass they will soon wither,

like green plants they will soon die away

(THAT’S what you should be doing instead of fretting

:Trust, Dwell, take Delight:)

3 Trust in the Lord and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

4Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart

(:And this, too, instead of focusing on all that’s wrong and bad:)

5 Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him and he will do this:

6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

your vindication like the noonday sun

(:Remember:)

7 do not fret when people succeed in their ways,

when they carry out their wicked schemes.

(:And again:)

8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.”

Evil is ‘live’ spelled backwards.

Evil is me taking things into my own small, limited hands and thinking I have the power to do something about changing people.

And I want to live.

The only person or thing I have control over is me….and I can choose to yield that control to the all powerful God who is Sovereign and able to accomplish His purposes in this world in spite of me.

Even when it looks impossible.

I can choose to trust, delight, commit, dwell and rest. Choose to digest the truth instead. I can release my worrying, fretting, my anger to God’s capable hands for Him to do his will and his work.

Instead of letting worries and concerns eat me alive I can choose to feast on God’s living word, eat my daily bread, a portion that will feed me, nourish me and sustain me

Until that final feast when we eat at the banqueting table with Him, I will choose to trust, delight, commit, dwell and rest.