There is this scene in The Devil Wear's Prada, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, where Anne Hathaway's character and her boyfriend have a confrontation regarding her job. She had taken a job at a high fashion magazine while waiting for a journalist position to become available and ended up working day and night to prove herself invaluable to her boss and the company, much to the chagrin and amazement of her friends and boyfriend. In the confrontation scene, her phone keeps ringing, presumably from her boss, and her boyfriend says, "The person whose calls you always take, that's the relationship you're in." Powerful moment in the film.
I found myself reflecting on my own life. Where are my priorities? What relationships am I in? Sometimes our "priorities" do not revolve around a "who," at least not directly. I have tried over the years to curb my worrying. However, I never labeled it as worrying so much as being proactive in solving the obstacles in front of me. Sound familiar? Susan Young, in Jesus Calling, says "Worries, if indulged, develop into idols" and "whatever occupies your mind the most becomes your god!" Wow! But I don't worship any idols. I love God and Him only. Yet, when I am consumed with a situation that threatens my happiness and my personal relationships, my first response seems to be to want to fix things and I fret over how I can possibly do that. It starts to take up more and more of my time and I become consumed with it...so much so that I find less time to read the Bible or pray. Yet, praying and having faith in God is exactly what we are called to do. We need to leave our burdens at the feet of God and believe that He has our best interests at heart. If we don't we will be caught up in a cycle of bondage, topped with unnecessary anxiety. Susan Young goes on to say that, "Anxiety gains a life of its own, parasitically infesting your mind." Worse than that, excess worrying shuts us down. We get so tired. We start to give up. Fear sets in. But Jesus says, "Let not you heart be troubled... [and to] consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance...[and in time] you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." In order for our God to INCREASE, we need to DECREASE. We need to let God do His perfect work and give Him all the glory. Amen.