Dealing With the Enemy Within
a sermon based on Matthew 6:25-34
by Dr. David Rogne

Someone once wrote a simple three word poem about how long anxieties have plagued our race. He wrote: "Adam had 'em."

The author was rightly suggesting that worry has been present in the world since the beginning of human life. And far from abating, the reasons for worry seem to proliferate.
We do not all worry about the same things, nor to the same extent, but at one time or another all of us wrestle with the demon of worry. It starts when we are very young. Irma Bombeck wrote about the anxieties experienced by a child entering school for the first time.

My name is Donald and I don't know anything. I have new underwear, a new sweater, a loose tooth and I didn't sleep last night; I am worried.

What if the school bus jerks after I get on and I lose my balance and my pants rip and everyone laughs? What if a bell rings and everyone goes in a door and a man yells, 'Where do you belong?' and I don't know? What if the trays in the cafeteria are too tall for me to reach? What if the thermos lid on my soup is too tight and when I try to open it, it breaks? What if my loose tooth wants to come out when we're supposed to have our head down and be quiet? What if I splash water on my name tag and my name disappears and no one will know who I am? What if they send us out to play and all the swings are taken? What if I spend the whole day without a friend? What if the windows in the bus steam up and I won't be able to tell when I get to my stop?" It goes on like this, but you get the point. Even a six year old has anxieties when sent off to a new adventure with parents saying "You have nothing to worry about."

And the sad part is that as one gets older the worries mount. We worry about finances. We worry about our children and our absent loved ones. We worry about our health, about our job, about the future, about old age, about death. We worry about the opinions others have of us and about the decisions we made last year. Some of these should be subjects of our legitimate concern, and such concern may lead us to take constructive action.

However, there are times when our legitimate and correct concerns get out of hand and we are filled with anxious care which robs us of sleep, appetite, enjoyment of life, social relationships, and peace of mind. For some, worry can be so severe that they will need psychotherapy to discover its source and to promote healing. For many of us, our worries may not be that disabling, but they certainly may rob us of the fullness of life.

To people caught up in the real insecurities of daily life, Jesus says "Do not worry...." It's a nice thought, but can we live up to it? In the light of our frailty and sense of vulnerability, I don't know if we can overcome worry altogether, at least not all at once, but perhaps we can bring our worries down to a size where we can cope with them.

One way we can reduce anxiety is by learning to live one day at a time. That means we have to stop living in the past. There is a great temptation for us to use up our powers reliving the past and regretting old mistakes, shortcomings, and decisions. Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Too often we burden ourselves with yesterday's decisions. "If only I had made a different decision my life would be better now," "If I had married some other person, or followed a different line of work, or settled in some other city....” In fact, we don't know anything about the road not taken. In our imagination we think of that other road as being smoother and straighter and leading to our heart's desire, but we cannot be sure. There could have been great heartbreak down that other road that we didn't take. I know a fellow who dwells in the past. Most of his life he has been looking backward and saying that if he had done this or that differently his life would be far better now, but because he concentrates on the past he never takes responsibility for doing anything about the present.

As we learn to live one day at a time, we also need to stop focusing on the future. "Don’t worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will bring worries of its own," said Jesus. That doesn't mean, "Don't look ahead and plan for contingencies." Jesus is warning about the destructive habit of anticipating troubles and tragedies, most of which never take place anyway. One woman, who realized that her fears were ruining her life, made herself a "worry table". In tabulating her worries, she discovered these figures: 40% will never happen, they are the result of a tired mind; 30% were about old decisions which she could not alter; 12% were related to other people's criticisms of her, most of which were untrue; 10% were about her health, which only got worse as she worried; and 8% were legitimate, for life does have some real problems to meet.

I heard about one fellow who seemed to have succeeded in narrowing the scope of his worries. "I only worry about two things," he bragged, "whether I'm sick or well. If I'm well I've got nothing to worry about. And if I'm sick I've only got two things to worry about - whether I get better, or whether I die. If I die, I've only got two things to worry about - whether I go to heaven or whether I go to hell. If I go to heaven, I've got nothing to worry about. And if I go to hell, I'll be so busy greeting my friends I won't have time to worry! so why worry?" I don't know if we can narrow the scope of our worries that drastically, but we certainly do trouble ourselves about a lot of things that never happen.

What we need to do then, is to focus more of our attention on the present. The Bible reminds us: "As your days (are), so is your strength." (Deuteronomy 33:25) The promise is not for sustenance weeks or months or years in advance, but day by day. And Jesus reminds us that when we pray, it is to be for present need: "Give us this day our daily bread." (Mathew 6:11) Victory in anything depends upon a series of victories which we must win one by one.

A book is read one page at a time. An education is gotten one lesson at a time. A golf match is won one hole at a time. What our Lord seems to be saying is, “ If you want to succeed in life, do not try to live your whole life all at once. Live one day at a time, and live it well. Put all you have into each day's opportunities and duties; past and the future are not under your control.”

A second way in which we can reduce anxiety is by learning to put criticism by others in its proper perspective. All of us are terribly vulnerable to criticism. A hundred people can tell us what a good job we are doing but it is negated by one person who criticizes what we are doing. We become anxious about ourselves because we want everyone to like us or agree with us.

One of the secrets of the remarkable career of St. Paul was his ability to manage criticism. He didn't allow himself to be weakened and throttled by the opinions of others. He was a fallible human being like the rest of us, and probably some of the criticism he received was deserved, but he didn't allow himself to be deflected from his course. Writing to the Corinthians, he said, "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself... .. It is the Lord who judges me." (I Corinthians 4:3-4).

I think it is possible for us, like Paul, to deal more successfully with criticism than we do. To do that, we must learn to expect it. One way to escape criticism is to say nothing, do nothing, be nothing, but then it is difficult to be proud of oneself. If on the other hand, we do something it will not be possible to please everybody. A contemporary wrote of one of our presidents: "The present occupant of the President's office is little better than a murderer. He is treacherous in private friendships, a hypocrite in public life, and an imposter who has either abandoned all good principles or else never had any." Who was the rogue of whom this detractor wrote? None other than George Washington! One way of putting criticism into proper perspective is to expect it.

A second way to respond to criticism is to learn to listen to it. Columnist Sydney Harris writes that at the height of W.S. Gilbert's success, when Gilbert and Sullivan operettas had standing room only in London, Gilbert appeared on the witness stand in a libel case. He was asked by the defense attorney whether he had read the many compliments paid to him by a certain magazine. Gilbert replied: "I never read favorable criticisms. I prefer reading unfavorable ones. I know how good I am, but I do not know how bad I am." His words indicate that he was not the most humble of men, but he was prepared to listen to his critics. Comedian Jay Leno attributes part of his success to listening to some painful criticism. He was performing at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Johnny Carson came to see his act to consider him for The Tonight Show.

After the act, Carson told Leno, "You seem like a very funny young man, but you're not right for the show. You don't have enough jokes." Leno recounts, "I was devastated. I resented what Johnny said, but I took it to heart and began honing the material - adding more jokes, better jokes." Leno, who once again hosts that show, says, "I've always been grateful to him for being so straight, for giving me the real advice, hard as it seemed at the time." Criticism may make us anxious because it sounds like somebody thinks we are not doing a good job. We can discount the criticism altogether and tell ourselves it just isn't true, and continue to be anxious, or we can hear it as a suggestion that somebody thinks we can do an even better job than we are doing. We may be able to get rid of the anxiety by improving our act.

Another way of responding to criticism is to forget it. But not immediately. When we have conscientiously faced criticism, and gotten all the good we can out of it, then we should forget it. If we let it fester, we forfeit our happiness. Undue concern about the judgments of others strangles individuality and inhibits achievement. Aesop has a fable about the futility of trying to please

everybody. A man and his son were leading a donkey to town. A passerby laughed at them for walking while the donkey had no load, so the man had the boy get up and ride. Before long they met a man who criticized the boy for riding while his father walked. The boy got off the donkey and the man climbed on. Soon another traveler called the man selfish because he was making the little boy walk. To get rid of this objection they both started to ride, and then someone accused them of cruelty to the donkey. In desperation, they tied the donkey's feet together, put a pole between them, and started to carry the donkey. But people laughed at them so much they decided to let the donkey down. As they did, the animal began to kick, rolled over into the river, and was drowned. It is foolish to attempt to please everybody. Jesus had it right when he said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.” (John 4:34) “I do always do what is pleasing to him.” (John 8:29)

Once you decide whose judgment is the most important, it enables you to put the opinions of others into a proper perspective. Even Norman Vincent Peale had his low moments. After he wrote the book The Power of Positive Thinking, some pastors gave him a rough time, and he thought about quitting. So he went to see his father, a retired Methodist minister, who said, "Norman, I've followed you all your life. You've always remained true to Jesus Christ. There's only one thing left to do." "What's that?" Norman asked. "Tell those people to go to hell," responded his father.

A third way in which we can reduce our anxiety is by learning to focus on the positive aspects of life. We can get terribly upset about life just by reading the newspapers. A great deal of worry could be removed if we could get in the habit of looking on the positive side and asking, "What is going on that is good?" Charles L. Gould, Publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, published a booklet a few years ago entitled, "Challenges of Our Times." In it he calls attention to these facts for the year of publication: "More than 196,000,000 of our people will not be arrested; more than 89,000,000 married people will not file for divorce; more than 115,000,000 individuals will maintain a formal affiliation with some religious group; more than 75,000,000 citizens and corporations will pay 160 billion dollars in income taxes; more than 4,000,000 teachers, preachers and professors will not go on strike." Gould goes on to add: "Never before in history has a people accomplished so much." Look for what is good, and feed your mind on that for awhile.

We need to think more positively about ourselves, too. Our lack of accomplishment or feelings of inferiority often are the result of an inadequate self-estimate. Some of us need to think better of ourselves than we do. Claire Mac Murray, in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, tells this story; "The six-year-old son of a well-known insurance man had inherited his father's self-confidence and gift of gab. One evening the father came home to find sonny with a ball and bat. 'Hi Dad!' shouted sonny. 'Watch me! I'm hitting 'em a mile!' The boy tossed the ball up, took a swing and missed. 'Strike one,' he shouted gleefully. 'But watch this one, Dad. Boy, oh boy, am I going to knock the cover off this one!’

Again he tossed the ball in the air, took a poke at it, missed. 'Strrrike two!' he intoned. 'Whata you know! Well, it only takes one to hit it. Am I going to clout this one!' Carefully he took his stance, carefully he tossed the ball, mightily he swung the bat - and missed. 'Strrrike three!' he announced. 'And out.' Then, exultantly, he said, 'Gee, Dad, am I some kind of pitcher or what!'" If we could only cultivate that kind of an estimate of the things we can do, we could overcome much anxiety about our imagined powerlessness.

Finally, we need to learn to think more positively about God. There is a song by Bobby Ferrin ("Don't Worry, Be Happy") which goes:

Here's a little song I wrote,
you might want to sing it note for note,
Don't worry, be happy!
In your life there may be trouble,
When you worry you make it double.
Don't worry, be happy!
Ain't got no place to lay your head?
Somebody came and took your bed?
Don't worry, be happy!
Landlord said your rent is late, He
might have to litigate!
Don't worry, be happy!

Nice sentiment, but what does it offer to keep anyone from worry? Someone has pointed out that the song is a meatless sandwich. Between the two slices of bread -"don't worry," and "be happy" one has to ask "Where's the beef?" The missing ingredient is faith in God - faith that there is somebody who holds the universe together, even when it doesn't feel like it.

When the allies entered Cologne toward the end of World War II, soldiers made a house-by-house search, looking for armed enemies. In one house they discovered that people had been living in the cellar for weeks because of the bombardment. On the wall they found these words:
"I believe in the sun,
even when it is not shining;
I believe in love
even when I feel it not;
I believe in God
even when he is silent."

No pollyana optimism there. Not even a suggestion that they would be kept safe. Only a trust that in God lay their hope. We don't know what became of those people, but a positive trust that they could not get beyond God's concern gave them courage to endure.
It was that kind of conviction that prompted another Christian to exclaim: "I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future." I think that is what Jesus means when he urges us not to worry. Not because bad things don't happen to people of faith. They do happen. But worrying about them contributes nothing of benefit. Faith that somehow God can use what befalls us and work it into his grand design is what makes the difference between meaninglessness and meaning. And Jesus is calling us to opt for meaning.