Monday, 29 March 2010

• Jesus says, "Don't Worry, Be Happy"

  Click here:
  

  to watch the YouTube video, "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
  to read the lyrics.
  

  
  Bobby McFarrin's a pretty happy guy, it seems. Taking a cue from an Indian mystic and sage, Meher Baba (don't worry, I don't know who he is, either), Bobby was inspired the idea, saying, "Whenever you see a poster of Meher Baba, it usually says 'Don't worry, be happy,' which is a pretty neat philosophy in four words, I think" (Wikipedia).
  
  The song's simple message expresses the idea that hard times are going to come. You might lose your home. You have no cash. You're lonely. Not even so much as a bed to sleep on. The song's upbeat theme is a curious one given the very stressful problems that it cites. A cynic might thing Bobby is in some fairy land, ignoring the reality of today.
  
  And yet, Bobby has a very simple reply to this: "In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double." And towards the end of the song, he adds, "Don't worry, it will soon pass, whatever it is."
  
  If you were to ask me, I would say that worrying is a combination of being afraid of the unknown and wanting to control our reality while meeting face-to-face the Fact that we cannot. Worry is the realization that we are, quite simply, helpless on our own. It's the fear that we recognize our inability to lead a self-sustaining life and then we cry out to "no one", asking, "Who will take care of me?!"
  
  Jesus answered this a couple of millennium ago:
  

  "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.
  And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?'
  These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
  Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today."
  

  Matthew 6:28-34
  
  Jesus' words are, in short, telling us that the most helpless of all creation, for example, are the lilies of the field. Clearly, lilies don't have a consciousness, so He is personifying them, giving them human emotions. All they do is grow and convert light to food and look pretty. That's it. Yet God cares for those flowers, even though they will pass away later on. And if God cares for the flowers, how much more will He care for us - us, His most treasured creation (God didn't create humans last because we were a last-minute though; God created the universe the way He did with us specifically mind).
  
  First, though, let's look at what Jesus said about worrying not adding anything to one's life.
  Go with me to WebMD to take a look at many of the problems that arise from excessive worrying:
  

  Chronic worrying and emotional stress can trigger a host of health problems. The problem occurs when fight or flight is triggered daily by excessive worrying and anxiety. The fight or flight response causes the body’s sympathetic nervous system to release stress hormones such as cortisol. These hormones can boost blood sugar levels and triglycerides (blood fats) that can be used by the body for fuel. The hormones also cause physical reactions such as:
  

  * difficulty swallowing
  * dizziness
  * dry mouth
  * fast heartbeat
  * fatigue
  * headaches
  * inability to concentrate
  * irritability
  * muscle aches
  * muscle tension
  * nausea
  * nervous energy
  * rapid breathing
  * shortness of breath
  * sweating
  * trembling and twitching
  

  When the excessive fuel in the blood isn’t used for physical activities, the chronic anxiety and outpouring of stress hormones can have serious physical consequences, including:
  

  * suppression of the immune system
  * digestive disorders
  * muscle tension
  * short-term memory loss
  * premature coronary artery disease
  * heart attack
  

  In severe cases when excessive worrying and high anxiety go untreated, they can lead to depression and even suicidal thoughts.
  

  
  That doesn't seem like anything beneficial is coming out of worrying about the "what ifs" of our lives. Wondering with fear about the possible outcomes - usually negative - only serve to hinder our mind and our very body. Emotionally and spiritually, we begin to become sad, depressed, discourage and even hopeless.
  
  Now, don't take Jesus' words out of context. He isn't saying that you will be neglected if you do not seek God. God is the very source of your life and if God didn't care, He would not see to it that you even had so much as a pulse or air in your lungs. But Jesus is talking about the things that we worry about on a daily, regular basis. Things we are given by God through jobs and other sources. Jesus is saying that we're worrying for nothing. If we would seek God first we would realize that all our worrying did was add problems where God already had solutions before we even had a single moment to be afraid of.
  
  In other words, worrying about tomorrow's problems - that haven't even come yet (or might not even come at all) - when we still have the problems of today that do, in fact, exist, is just adding fantasy to reality - they don't mix.
  
  So sing it with me, "Don't worry, be happy now!"
  

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