All of us are far more worried about things than ever. The reason is simple, we are told to worry about far more things. Just as technology has produced more clothes, cars, TVs, and possessions of all kinds, it has also increased the number of things about which we are told to “worry”.
The list is endless. The latest worries, from trans-fats to second-hand smoke to climate change, take up whole pages and news broadcasts. They keep us from peace and contentment. When we think about all the worries, it paralyzes our minds.
To begin at the beginning, we ask “Where do worries come from.” The answer is surprising. Worries are produced in huge worry factories. Skilled worry-makers crank out their quotas of worries every day.
Then, the question “Why do they make up so many worries?” comes to mind. The answer is simple: every worry is some worry maker’s else’s profit center. As fewer people make a living by doing something real, more people are reduced to manufacturing worries. All public institutions, and now, many private organizations, are built on a foundation of well-developed worries.
We quoted H. L. Mencken in this month’s first post to help understand why politicians are always so alarmed about things. The same quote helps keep us all saner when applied to any worry:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them entirely imaginary.”
If one memorizes that simple sentence, and repeats it after each sentence that cautions us to “be careful”, we will become saner. We may even begin to vote for people who tell the truth, rather than for those whom too many of us now support.
When we see Imaginary Problems, we should automatically remember that they are lies. Each Imaginary Problem is both the manifestation of demonic schemes and the clearing of the way for more demons to move into the minds of the credulous.
Jesus, who drove demons from whole herds of pigs, can drive them from us.
No matter how weighted down our minds are with lies, we have but to remember, “The truth shall set you free.”
Hopefully, we remember Scripture well enough to know to Whom that refers.
