How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

By Dale Carnegie

Fundamental facts you should know about worry

1. If you want to avoid worry, do what Sir William Osler did: Live in "day-tight compartments." Don't stew about the futures. Just live each day u ntil bedtime.

2. The next time Trouble--with a Capital T--backs you up in a corner, try the magic formula of Willis H. Carrier:

• Ask yourself, "What is the worst that can possibly happen if I can't solve my problem?
• Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst--if necessary.
• Then calmly try to improve upon the worst--which you have already mentally agreed to accept.
  

3. Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health. "Those who do not know how to fight worry die young."

Basic techniques in analyzing worry

1. Get the facts. Remember that Dean Hawkes of Columbia University said that "half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision."

2. After carefully weighing all the facts, come to a decision.

3. Once a decision is carefully reached, act! Get busy carrying out your decision--and dismiss all anxiety about the outcome.

4. When you, or any of your associates, are tempted to worry about a problem, write out and answer the following questions:

• What is the problem?
• What is the cause of the problem?
• What are all possible solutions?
• What is the best solution?
  

How to break the worry habit before it breaks you

1. Crowd worry out of your mind by keeping busy. Plenty of action is one of the best therapies ever devised for curing "wibber gibbers."

2. Don't fuss about trifles. Don't permit little things--the mere termites of life--to ruin your happiness.

3. Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries. Ask yourself: "What are the odds against this thing's happening at all?"

4. Co-operate with the inevitable. If you know a circumstance is beyond your power to change or revise, say to yourself: "It is so; it cannot be otherwise."

5. Put a "stop-less" order on your worries. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth--and refuse to give it anymore.

6. Let the past bury its dead. Don't saw sawdust.

Seven ways to cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and happiness

1. Let's fill our minds with thoughts of peace, courage, health, and hope, for "our life is what our thoughts make it."

2. Let's never try to get even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ourselves far more than we hurt them. Let's do as General Eisenhower does: let's never waste a minute thinking about people we don't like.

3. Gratitude

• Instead of worrying about ingratitude, let's expect it. Let's remember that Jesus healed ten lepers in one day--and only one thanked Him. Why should we expect more gratitude than Jesus got?
• Let's remember that the only way to find happiness is not to expect gratitude--but to give for the joy of giving.
• Let's remember that gratitude is a "cultivated" trait; so if we want our children to be grateful, we must train them to be grateful.
  

4. Count your blessings--not your troubles!

5. Let's not imitate others. Let's find ourselves and be ourselves, for "envy is ignorance" and "imitation is suicide."

6. When fate hands us a lemon, let's try to make a lemonade.

7. Let's forget our own unhappiness--by trying to create a little happiness for others. "When you are good to others, you are best to yourself."

The perfect way to conquer worry

• Prayer

How to keep from worrying about criticism

1. Unjust criticism is often a disguised compliment. It often means that you have aroused jealousy and envy. Remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog.

2. Do the very best you can; and then put up your old umbrella and keep the rain of criticism from running down the back of your neck.

3. Let's keep a record of the fool things we have done and criticize ourselves. Since we can't hope to be perfect, let's do what E.H. Little did: let's ask for unbiased, helpful, constructive criticism.

Six ways to prevent fatigue and worry and keep your energy and spirits high

1. Rest before you get tired.

2. Learn to relax at your work.

3. Learn to relax at home.

4. Apply these four good workings habits:

• a. Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand.
• b. Do things in the order of their importance.
• c. When you face a problem, solve it then and there if you have the facts to make a decision.
• d. Learn to organize, deputize, and supervise.

5. To prevent worry and fatigue, put enthusiasm into your work.

6. Remember, no one was ever killed by lack of sleep. It is worrying about insomnia that does the damage--not the insomnia.

Where Is God When Bad Things Happen?

By Luis Palau

We truly live in a tragic world. So how does the God of the Bible relate to war and tragedy? Where is He when they occur? Can we continue to believe in a loving God who would permit such terrible things to happen? These are important questions. God’s Word teaches:

1. Disasters, tragedies, and even mayhem are a part of life in a fallen world.

The moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they brought sin into the world --and deadly accidents and murderous acts soon followed. Cain, the very first human baby, grew up to become the very first human murderer (see Genesis 4:1-8). And accidents have plagued human kind ever since the race was driven from Eden.

No one is exempt, not even the most godly. I doubt few would question that the apostle Paul was one of the most effective and dedicated Christian workers in history, yet his life was peppered with serious accidents until it finally ended under the blade of a Roman executioner.

Paul suffered through at least as many accidents and hardships as any of us ever will, and yet their painful occurrence never shook his confidence in a good, loving God. Why not?

Unlike us, Paul did not see tragedy as prima facie evidence against the existence of a compassionate heavenly Father. In fact, he could write, “for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). Don’t misunderstand; Paul was no masochist. He didn’t delight in hardships and accidents because he enjoyed pain. No, he meant that when life overwhelmed him, he knew God would step in to help. Paul delighted in his own “weakness” because it was that weakness that gave God the opportunity to display to the world His own irresistible strength. And for that Paul was grateful.

Jesus, too, told us to expect pain and difficulties in this life. “In this world you will have trouble,” He warned His disciples in John 16:33. And to the public at large, He said this about the future: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7). It isn’t a pleasant thought, but that’s the way life is sometimes in this fallen world. It may shock us, but it shouldn’t surprise us.

Tragedies are always agonizing and often senseless. But thank God, that is not where the story ends.

2. God is in control, even when it doesn’t seem as if He is.

Events never spiral out of God’s control, as if He somehow lacks the power or insight to direct the affairs of our little planet. That is why the apostle Paul, a man who knew intimately the pain of a fallen world, could tell the ancient Athenians, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth . . . .From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:24-27).

The Bible insists that God is sovereign, that “His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. . . . He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34-35). Even when tragedies occur and innocent life is taken or maimed, God remains in ultimate control. Nothing happens that does not first pass through his loving hands.

We may not fully understand how this can be when we face painful tragedies, but our lack of understanding does not diminish or destroy its truth. Before we were born, God knew exactly how long we would live and how we would die. “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be,” the psalmist said to God in Psalm 139:16. And that remains true whether those days are many or few.

3. God has a purpose in what He allows, even if we don’t know what it is.

From our perspective, tragedies look meaningless and senseless and chaotic, but God knows how to take even tragedies and bring good out of them. Although I do not believe that God causes all tragedies--the Bible says He is incapable of sin. I do believe He has a purpose in allowing painful events to occur. Nothing that happens is a mad, meaningless accident. We may not understand what His purposes are, but we can take comfort in the fact that they exist. God specializes in taking evil and bringing good out of it.

Does the Lord cause some to die so the lives of others could be spared and the souls of still others might be better? No. God is not a murderer. But He does know how to take tragedy and bring good out of it. When we get home to heaven, we will finally see His purposes even in the tragedies of life. Meanwhile, we must continue to believe that He does have a purpose in everything that happens--even if right now we are unable to see a shadow of what that might be.

4. Tragedy can serve as a wake-up call.

Oxford professor C.S. Lewis wrote years ago that “pain is God’s megaphone to a deaf world.” In that way, some tragedies may serve as wake-up calls for spiritually sleeping people.

A stubborn, secular, and even blasphemous society sometimes will be stopped short only when a tragedy of national proportions takes place. In the flood of the media reports, sometimes redemptive truth gets out.

In a way, “tragedy” is a big reason why the cross and crucifixion of Christ still grip our imagination (even those who reject the Gospel). There is something so profound about Calvary that even people whose religion has nothing to do with Christianity, even people who reject Christ both intellectually and verbally, nevertheless are gripped by the story.

Thank God, perhaps, that He allows tragedy to so grab people. But what a shame that it takes such a horrendous wake-up call for us to open our sleepy eyes.

5. It is possible to embrace hope even in the midst of tragedy.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to endure a tragedy without the hope that God offers. Without Jesus Christ, there is no hope. There is simply an eternal, black, cold, and unrelenting void.

Just last week I came face to face with a cynical man who didn’t believe in anything. What a miserable way to end life. I think unbelievers must, from time to time, wish that they had the hope of eternal life and a home in heaven. But of course, they have no such thing. Instead they have cynicism.

Of course, we Christians grieve when those we love are taken from us, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope. We do not believe that people cease to exist (except as memories) when they die; the Bible tells us that we will again see all those loved ones who put their faith in Christ. As the apostle Paul writes, “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who die, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have died in him” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).

Thank God, some atheists come to recognize their hopelessness and turn from it. A distant relative of mine who for almost 70 years claimed to be an atheist came to me one day and said, “My dad was an atheist. I’ve always claimed to be an atheist. But now I’m reading the Bible and trying to get insights, and Luis, if there’s a God, I want to know Him. If there’s eternal life, I want to have it. Can you help me?” At least he was honest, but he waited far too long to find the hope he lacked.

Hope is readily available to all of us, even in the midst of tragedy. And not only hope for eternal life and hope of being reunited with those we love. Hope is available right now, square in the middle of tragedy, because God has promised to walk with us through any disaster that might overtake us.

6. This world is not our final home.

When loved ones die in tragic accidents or at the hands of wicked men, it is good to remember that this world is not our final home.

We were created for eternity, and tragedy can never change that. This is only a transition period, a prelude, to what God really has in mind for us. But because we usually look only at the present, we often consider someone’s death premature or untimely. Our perspective is enormously limited. We tend to look only at what could have been (and in our minds, should have been) down here on earth. But God looks at all of eternity. If we are to cope with tragedy, we must learn to look at it through eternity’s lens.

Use Your Creativity to Change the Culture

By Whitney Hopler

If you want to make a powerful and lasting impact on the culture, you’ve got to do more than just consume it, critique it, condemn it, or copy it. The only way to truly change the culture is to create something new for it – something that will inspire people enough to start to reshape their world.

Here’s how you can use your creativity to change the culture:

Engage the culture. Forget about trying to withdraw from the surrounding culture; that effort is ultimately futile because you can’t help but be influenced on some level by your culture. Instead, choose to participate in the culture. Rather than worrying about the culture influencing you in negative ways, do all you can to influence the culture in positive ways.

Don’t separate your faith from the rest of your life. Integrate your faith fully into your lifestyle by following God’s guidance in every part of your life. Remember that your faith isn’t just about what you do at any given time or place; it shapes who you are and who you’re becoming as a whole person. As you interact with the culture, your faith should naturally influence all of your decisions.

Embrace your calling. God has given you the desire you have to take what exists in the world and make something more of it. Take your calling to be creative seriously by pursuing it with passion. Pay attention to your interests and develop and use your talents to the fullest. Ask God to help you discover what contributions He wants you to make to the world. Then do your best to do so.

Cultivate culture. Take care of the good things that your culture has already given you. Preserve and nourish the best of what people before you have contributed to the culture.

Dare to take risks. Be willing to think and do things that have never been thought of or done before – things that make the world a better place. Ask God to help you overcome your fears so they won’t block you from using your creativity to the fullest.

Tap into the Gospel’s power to transform culture. The Gospel’s power can’t be contained in any particular culture; it reaches into every culture and changes it by changing the lives of the people within. It doesn’t just abandon the old and replace it with the new. Instead, it transforms it from the inside out. With God’s power at work to make even the impossible gloriously possible, every culture can be changed for the better. So make a daily habit of inviting God to work through your life to change the culture, rather than trying to change it yourself. Rely on God’s unlimited power instead of your own limited efforts.

Be specific. Instead of pursuing a vague and naïve general idea of changing the world, think and pray about the specific ways God wants to use you to do His redemptive work at particular times and in particular places. Remember that all it takes for you to change the world is to change the culture right around you. Be humble about the scale of your creative work, but be assured that even work on the smallest scale is hugely significant if God has called you to do it. Trust God to accomplish something great through your creative efforts.

Notice where God is already at work, and join Him there. Look for ways in which God is bringing about something new and better throughout your culture – at your company, school, church, stores, neighborhood, parks, and anywhere else you go. Ask yourself where the impossible is becoming possible, and realize that God is at work there. Consider how you can join God’s work. Think about specific ways in which you can empower people by helping to meet their spiritual and physical needs.

Use your power well. The awesome creative power you have at your disposal is a gift from God that you can either use for great good or abuse in ways that lead to destruction. Resist the temptation to engage your power in the wrong ways by humbling yourself to serve other people on a regular basis, genuinely listening to other people’s concerns, investing your resources into the lives of people who aren’t as powerful as you, and making it your goal to accomplish God’s purposes rather than your personal goals. Regularly check yourself to honestly evaluate whether or not you’re trusting in God’s power rather than your own.

Work with other people. Your contributions to the culture will have a greater impact if you work on them together with a group of other people than just by yourself. Look for people you know and trust; with whom you share passion and conviction and commitment; and whose gifts, talents, and needs complement yours. Work as a community toward common goals.

Discern the impact of your work. Regularly examine how much your creative work is impacting the culture, and in what ways it’s doing so. Where are you experiencing God’s grace at work to multiply your efforts? How can you focus your efforts on the most fruitful areas to produce the most positive change?

Stay closely connected to God through spiritual disciplines. Make sure you’re practicing spiritual disciplines such as prayer and Bible reading, meditation, and study on a regular basis to maintain the close connection with God that you need to rely on His power daily. Get a fresh dose of spiritual power every day to help you engage and change the culture around you.

Sustain hope when you fail and celebrate your successes. When your creative work fails, ask God to help you learn all He wants you to learn from the experience. Trust that, if you follow where He leads, He will ultimately bring about good results from your work somehow. When your creative work succeeds in changing the culture, thank God and celebrate the positive changes you’ve helped to bring about. Let the memories of your successes so far inspire you to keep giving your best effort to your work.

Source: Crosswalk.com