“We take things from tomorrow and the next day and we dump it on today.”

A thought by Ed Young, from his book, The Fear Virus: Vaccinating Yourself Against Life's Greatest Phobias (p.28). Creality Publishing. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

We do that, don’t we?

Ed says, “Dr. Robert Leahy, clinical psychologist and director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York, reported a study that he did showing that 85 percent of what subjects worry about never happens. And with the 15 percent of events that did happen, most of the subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected or they were grateful for a lesson learned through the experience. We take things from tomorrow and the next day and we dump it on today. That’s why Jesus is saying to us, ‘Don’t do it. You take care of what God has given you today and don’t freak out about tomorrow.’”

Earlier he said, “We all deal with different fears. For many of us, it’s the fear of the future, the fear of the unknown. The perceived consequences of these potentially unfavorable outcomes can feel very real. This makes our fear feel very justified. We start asking ‘what if’ questions: “What if I get sick? What if I don’t pass the test? What if I don’t make the team? What if I lose my job? What if they leave me? What if my child dies?’ What if this and what if that and what if . . . We could ask these questions all day long.

“I call that kind of questioning ‘scenario sickness,’ and that’s something that we have to stay away from. How many of us can admit to playing out all these ‘what ifs’ to the point where our imaginary fears make us sick? Scenario sickness feeds the process of ‘False Evidence Appearing Real,’ and it causes worry and fear to reign in our lives.”

Later He says, “When fear of the future and scenario sickness starts causing all the ‘what ifs’ to pop into your head, remind yourself that Jesus is saying to you, ‘Don’t worry about all of these ‘“what ifs”’ and fears of tomorrow, I’ve got you!’”

And that is so true isn’t it?

Yes, yes!

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