FollowBy Brian Sharpe
Personal care is something we all need to work on, but I am not sure we always understand what that means. I know when I am living in my head, it usually doesn’t end well. I didn’t understand why until this past week. Tomina and I were sitting in some teaching sessions while at our district’s pastors and wives retreat. The speaker was Dr. Gary Oliver, and he was talking about fear and anxiety during one of the sessions. He gave us four easy steps to worry. First, observe a situation. Then, interpret the situation. The next step is to exaggerate the situation. The fourth is grasshopper.
He used the example of the spies going from the desert to Canaan. God had told them in Numbers 13 to go to the land that “He would give them.” The spies didn’t trust what God said. They went into the land, observed the people, and then exaggerated the situation and told everyone that there is no way they could go into the land God that God promised them because the people would devour them. They said they were like grasshoppers compared to the people in the promised land, which led them to worry and not trust what God told them.
I see this happening so often in my life. I won’t ask questions about something because I believe I already know the answer. I will assume the worst because I have observed the situation, interpreted it, exaggerated it—and then grasshopper. When we go down this path of worry, it tears us up inside. It hinders our ability to have relationships with others and leads us to loneliness. How I—and ultimately all of us—can combat this is by doing the following:
- Giving people the benefit of the doubt
- Not assuming the outcome
- Having conversation where there are hurts
- Trusting what we know to be true from the Word of God
When I do these things, worry will melt away and freedom comes. It is when I am not willing to deal with the exaggerations in my life that I am in bondage to circumstances. God has given us freedom through the work of Christ on the cross. He has given us the truth we can live by in the Word of God. One of those truths is that we need to live in unity with one another. Philippians 2:1-4 says,
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Let’s choose to deal with the grasshopper effect by dealing with the exaggeration that comes in our minds while going through life. We need to choose to give people the benefit of the doubt, not assuming we know the outcomes, dealing with hurts between us and others, trusting what we know to be true about God from Scripture. If we do this, we can limit the effect worry has on our lives as well as build up our community of faith and, ultimately, our faith in the Lord. Let’s pursue emotional and relational health together. Grasshopper.
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