“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

—Matthew 6:34

“I have learned to pay attention to right now. The precise moment I was in was always the only safe place for me.”

—Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

The Worry Habit

The first item of clutter in our spirits is the “Worry Habit.”

Unlike the “List Habit”…there is no upside to the “Worry Habit.” Still, it’s very easy to kick this habit. All we have to do is learn to stay in the present moment. But how are we to do that when we have so many issues about our pasts and concerns about our futures? Well, we have to stop worrying about them.

Worry and living in the present are integrally related.

Generally, when we are living in the present, not the past or future, we find it easier not to worry.

The past cannot be changed. It can be overcome, and it can be forgiven, but it cannot change. We will explore forgiveness in the next two chapters.

The future has not happened yet; therefore, it is not real.

Still, the future can be changed by our actions. Sometimes we think that justifies worrying about the future, but worry is not an action. It will not change the future. Only positive action in the present moment will affect the future. God alone knows exactly how our present actions will affect our futures, so, again, it is useless to worry about it.

The Trouble with the Future

C.S. Lewis discussed this human inclination to worry about the future in his book, The Screwtape Letters (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001). The premise of this book is a series of letters from one devil to another about how to “secure” the soul of a certain human being (the “patient”) and get him condemned to hell. The older, wiser devil writing the letters advises his younger protégé to encourage the “patient” to think about the future. “In a word, the future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time—for the past is frozen and no longer flows, and the present is all lit up with eternal rays.... Hence nearly all vices are rooted in the future.”

Kind of makes you want to stop worrying about the future, doesn’t it? It is true, isn’t it, that worry leads to sin. We worry that God will not provide for us, so we become dishonest in our finances or we neglect our families to spend time at the office.

We worry that we will never be loved, so we get involved with the wrong people. We worry, and we give our soul’s enemy a chance to move in on us.

Have you ever noticed that when you worry about the future, you cannot imagine God being there, solving the problem, bringing you through? Yet, time and time again, God does just that. Why don’t we picture God’s help when we worry? Because when we worry, we go ahead of God into a godless non-reality. God is not there in our worried imaginings; God is only in reality, in the eternal present. When our future becomes the present, God will be there.

Most of our worries have to do with the future. Even when we dwell on the past, the context is usually how it will affect our future. We worry about how we will cope with life if such-and-such happens. What if one of the children gets hurt? What if I lose my job? What if someone dies? The answer to all these questions is, “Just fine if it happens, because God will be with me.” If we insist on worrying, on going ahead of God into some dreadful scenario of the future, we are on our own. God cannot help us. God only gives us the strength to deal with present trials while we are actually experiencing them in reality.

Even when we are not worrying about the future, we often try to escape the present because we are in pain. This may be healthy to a certain extent. Immersing oneself in a good book or movie or having a daydream session are acceptable ways to relieve stress. Still, the very best way to deal with present pain is to face it squarely. We must ask ourselves, especially when we are in mental anguish, “Am I okay right now, right this moment?”

Often, we are. We can breathe, and we can do the deep breathing exercise in chapter three to prove it. We can ask God to help us shut down the disturbing images flitting through our minds.

The great majority of things we fear never come to pass. The rest we are able to deal with because we are strong people and God is always with us in our troubles. Think of some of the trials you have gone through and how God helped you. Could you have imagined what really happened? Did you foresee the strength God gave you, the people who helped or the comfort you felt? Of course not. Our fears never seem to include God’s provision for the moment. Their only subject matter is the terrible thing we may go through all by ourselves. They are not reality.

This present moment is where God is. C.S. Lewis wrote that the present “is all lit up with eternal rays.” When and if troubles happen, the present is where we get the strength to deal with them. The present moment is the only one that touches eternity, the only reality.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says there is “a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (3:4). Do we miss the “dancing” times because we are busy worrying about the “mourning” times that may or may not happen? Let’s not miss the dance because we are not paying attention to the present.

The Antidote to the Worry Habit

I wrote, somewhat in jest, that the solution to worry is to stay in the present moment, and the trick to staying in the present moment is to stop worrying about the past or future.

There is a real antidote to the worry habit: gratitude. There is no room for both worry and gratitude in our hearts. Think of a game of musical chairs. Worry and Gratitude run around and around a chair until the music stops. Only one of them can sit in the chair when the music stops. For many of us, worry usually wins and sits on the throne in our minds. We can change that.

We can push worry off and let gratitude have a turn. When we begin to thank God for all the good things in our lives, worry seems a silly waste of time. Staying in the present moment is much easier….

Work…can actually be enjoyable, that we can lose ourselves in “pleasant absorption and immersion.” This happens when we let go of worry, immerse ourselves in the moment and have grateful hearts.

Let’s make it our goal to be “present moment” people. Let’s practice gratitude, especially when worry tries to take over our hearts. Life will become simpler, easier and less cluttered.

Activities

1. How much trouble do you have staying in the present moment? What is the usual subject matter of your worries? The past or the future? Talk with God about this. Ask for help staying in the present.

2. Begin a “gratitude list.” Write down everything you can think of to thank God for: your health, your family, your home, your intellect. Most of all, thank God for his love and for creating you. Keep reading your list and adding to it as new things occur to you. Do you feel gratitude taking over the place worry used to occupy?

3. Make a God jar. Find a container you like and write notes to God to put inside. Tell God about your worries. Then put the slips of paper inside and leave them and your worries in God’s hands.

From Make Room for God: Clearing Out the Clutter, by Susan K. Rowland (St. Anthony Messenger Press Books, 2008).