Worry Less; Trust More

The image above is of Joel Osteen, head pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston Texas, United States—possibly the largest church in the country.  I appreciate his messages because they are unbelievably empowering for all.

Release Control

Pastor Osteen’s message of releasing management (of our lives) to God hit home with me this morning.  He talked about the need for all of us to focus only on what we can control; give the rest over to God. He is the only one that can make happen what’s supposed to occur. We’ll only become frustrated if we try to assume direction of our own lives; that’s God’s job.

We’re in charge of our attitude.

Pastor Osteen suggests that we should worry less and trust more.

I agree with this wise man; there will always be events and people in life beyond our management.  He says, “We can’t control what happens to us; we can only control our response.”

Viktor Frankl—is an example of a man who refused to let even dire circumstances manipulate his reaction. The late, brilliant neurologist and psychiatrist was a Nazi concentration camp survivor.  He maintained that he survived by not allowing his sadistic captors to determine what he was going to think about himself. 

Viktor Frankl knew that he could not control the Nazis in any way; but, he could control his reaction to the Nazis. He chose not to internalize their cruelty. In this way, Viktor became a Victor.

I’m sure that Dr. Frankl would have agreed with Joel Osteen’s quote: “Life is too short to be frustrated by things we cannot control.”

Worry is Impractical

There’s an Irish poem, original author anonymous. The poem puts worry in the tiny box that it deserves. It chops worry down to size. The message of the poem is that we have no reason to worry, because it won’t change anything. This is a summary of the poem: we can’t control many illnesses. Following an illness, we’ll either get better, or we’ll die. If we die and go to Heaven, we’re good. However, if we go to “the other place”, we’ll be so busy shaking hands with friends that we won’t have time to worry.

My Conclusion

Worry accomplishes nothing. Obsessing over the malevolent, or kind, opinions (and actions) of other people is useless. We will only succeed when we turn our lives over to the Creator of the universe.

What do you worry about the most?