No Worries

I heard about a fella whose wife had taken a nasty fall and hurt her leg. Her husband called for an ambulance, and said, "My wife's been in an accident and I think she needs you to come take her to the hospital."

"Yes, of course, Sir,” the dispatcher said. "What is your address?"

"47 Eucalyptus Ave", he said with confidence.

"Ok, could you please spell that?" the dispatcher asked.

The husband paused, then offered, “Tell you what; I'll drag her over to Oak Street, and you can pick her up there."

I’m not sure if that story relates to the dream I had last week, but I’ll let you be the judge:

In my dream, my son had suffered some sort of accident at a house where we were staying. It wasn't terribly serious, but no one was available to help, To make matters worse, when I tried to call for help, I saw that my grandson was on the phone with the ambulance people. And like the guy who couldn't spell, my grandson was not exactly communicating what needed to be said. Instead, he was telling them about his favourite cartoon - after all he's only seven. Meanwhile, I was stuck in a corner somewhere, unable to reach the scene or get anybody to help.

When I woke up, I had a chuckle, and then as reality dawned on me, I began to understand that this dream had been spawned from worry.  As many of you know, my son has been suffering from several physical ailments for over a year now, and it’s finally been attributed to the stresses from his work as a policeman.  In the next few weeks, we hope to get a final assessment and a ruling on what this is going to mean to his career. Just like in the dream, he's in no real danger, but it's all a worry that produces stresses for this mother. I’d love to help him through this somehow, but I’m at a loss. I have to admit that, looking at him today, I can see that he’s handling the situation much better than I am, and I have every confidence that very soon, this will all just be a bad dream.

I’m pretty sure if any of you mothers out there had a son who worked in the mail room of a large peaceful corporation, you might still find something to worry about. It comes with a mother’s job description, after all. No matter what the situation, most of us are experts at worrying. I think that must be why Jesus talked about so much it in the Gospels.

Look at Mary, the mother of Jesus.  All four Gospels record an event where she just had to bring the whole family to a place where Jesus was meeting in order to speak her mind. In Matthew 12:47, we read, “Someone told Him, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’” I think Mary was concerned about several things, and her concern had led her to a point where her worry for Him took over. The answer Jesus gave may sound a little harsh, but it needed to be said. He was at work, doing what He had come to do, and Mother’s worry, as touching as that may have been, could not be allowed to turn Him aside.  

Back to my silly dream, that same morning, as we read our devotion together, we found it to be on the whole chapter of Psalms 37.  (Check out Oswald Chamber's "My Utmost for His Highest”, July 4th). I think it was titled "One of God's Great Don'ts".  In it, he stresses that worry is not only a fruitless waste of energy but in fact is sin.

I have to remind myself of that truth when I remember today that we have barely two weeks before we leave for a four-month teaching stint in Hawaii. To say we're excited is an understatement, but of course we don’t have to look far to find things to worry about! In spite of our fruitless activity, though, things are falling into place, and we have to plenty to praise God about. He is, after all, the One Who is in charge of our comings and goings.

If you don't hear from me in the next few weeks, don't worry, I've probably just packed the laptop or have lost the ability to spell 'Eucalyptus'!

Thanks for your prayers in advance,  

Marsha