"Worry is a dividend paid to disaster before the fact."
--Ian Fleming
A very good friend recently talked about the difference between being a warrior and a worrier. He had a very good point. I don't think he was talking about the more colorful kind of warrior (that some of my fellow Trekkies might be thinking about), but rather someone who is willing and prepared to take charge of their life. Does that conflict with my Christian beliefs? Not at all. God is the Lord of my life. He is my savior. I live to do His work, and I do that work with what He gave me. He gave me a mind with which to question and create and reason. He gave me legs with which to walk, arms with which to reach and hands with which to grasp. I believe that we were put here not to endure a mundane existence, but rather to conquer our environment and prosper. Yes, we will be faced with problems and challenges. According to my faith (and I repeat that to emphasize that I'm not trying to tell you what to believe), God does not stop us from sailing into storms, but He does give us sails and a wheel and compass to navigate the storms of life, and strong arms and hands to hold that wheel. And of course He gave us strong vessels to weather that storm.
So how do I make it through life's storms? Quite honestly, I don't always do it very well. I spend time worrying when I could be pushing ahead. It isn't easy, and I fail at times. But I am also learning to worry less about problems and either work to solve or address them or take them out of the equation if they are trivial. Important issues in our life always have solutions. That solution may simply be a way to survive an obstacle. Be prepared for that. For me, I know that God has put things in my path, not to conquer me or to be conquered by me, but in fact to help me to grow. Just like building muscles, we cannot grow as people without stretching ourselves. Straining our comfort zones a little. There are also challenges that we all face that we have the ability to overcome by looking at them objectively. Most problems broken down to their component parts can be dealt with. Not by worrying about them but by worrying at them. Trivial issues must be recognized for what they are and dropped when they become a distraction. I'm to saying to drop every trivial thing in your life. I am a great lover of trivia. Trivia can be wonderful and necessary vacation time for the mind. Not everything we think about and work at has to be important. But when those trivial matters get confused with important issues, we have to make sure we recognize them and be prepared to let them go. Life can be a battle of one kind or another, but we have the tools to win. We simply have to be willing to fight for that victory.
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