Fret Not Thyself ~ Psalm 37:1

Oh, my.

Who of us is not guilty of fretting.  Do you know what it means?

This is what it means: to feel or express worry, discontent, or the like.

Or the like...I like that.  It pretty well covers the spectrum, doesn't it?

I have a friend who taught me a very, very valuable lesson about fretting.  Her name is Kathie and she lives in Perth, Western Australia.  We met online on an international pen pal site back around 2000 and became instant and almost-best-friends-as-much-as-we-can-be-without-ever-meeting.  Whew...that was a mouthful, eh?  Seventeen years later and our friendship is as strong as ever.  One of the blessings of the internet is the many wonderful people social media can bring across our path. Without it I never would have 'met' her.  I lived in Portland when we came across each other.  That put her 15-16 hours ahead of me time-wise, depending on Standard or Daylight Savings Time.  She's worked in bakeries for as long as I've known her, so she keeps strange hours just like I do.  Somehow our schedules worked out where we could get together on the internet to chat almost every day for an hour or two.  We're both extremely fast typists, so our typewritten conversations moved almost as fast as our mouths would have if we'd been face-to-face. How many belly laughs and tears, grumpy moods, exhaustion, frustrations, good news, bad news we shared.  Deaths in the family...she lost her Mum and I lost my Dad.  I would trust her with my life.

Oh, and one more thing we shared:  worrying.  Fretting.  How will we pay this bill?  How will we bear another day on the job?  How can people be so awful?  Why are our children acting this way, or that way?  How are we going to be able to fix the car?  The roof is leaking!  The toilet won't flush! You know...all the mundane daily things that cross our way.  And then there are health crises...job losses.  Argh.

One early morning we were chatting and moaning and groaning about something or other, for sure, because she brought up a friend of hers in Ireland who'd told her this little gem while they were talking about hard times.

Kathie and I dubbed it the "99%-1% Rule"

You know how sometimes something just reaches out and smacks you upside the head when you hear it?  This was it for me:

99% of what you fret and stew and worry over never comes to pass.  The 1% that does...you face it, you deal with it, and you. move. on.

Wow.  I mean, how simple, how true is that?

It was like one of those epiphany moments that come in a lifetime.  Like the Lord said, "Girl, listen to what she's saying to you, because I'm speaking to you.  Right here. Right now."

Up to that point in life I was the world's champion fretter.  Anxiety was my constant companion.  I worried about everything.  Money, kids, health, relationships with people. I had panic attacks.  Oh, the energy I wasted on...NOTHING!  Because 99% of it never happened!

What is it that ties us up in knots so much?  I know at that moment, when the Lord talked to me, it came to me that I'd been trying to do it all in my way, in my time, and it wasn't getting me anywhere but tied up in even more knots.  I wasn't giving it to Him and letting Him carry the burdens.  Boy, what a wimpy example I was of showing the world how I could lean on the Lord and He'd take care of me...not!!  Long story short...sort of...I began changing my fretting to faith.  Faith.  What a concept.

I'll even say it again:  FAITH!

One of those learning moments.  And after 41 years as a Christian I can look back and ask myself, "Why didn't I learn this earlier in life?  It would have helped me in so many situations."  But on God's clock the timing wasn't perfect to teach me until that moment.  A Christian walk is one big learning lesson.  Every minute, every hour, every day.  Sometimes you ace the test.  Sometimes you flunk it royally.  But God is there to brush you off and pick up the pieces.  Truly, He is.  He's as real to me as you are...I may not be able to see you but I know you're there.  As He is.

I couldn't live my life any other way.