Keeping Away Those Elephants
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles
The story is told of a man who was sitting on a park bench shredding old newspapers and spreading them around. “What are you doing?” asked a bystander. “I’m spreading this paper around to keep the elephants away.” The visitor looked around the well-kept city park. “I don’t see any elephants,” he said. The man smiled and replied, “Works pretty good, doesn’t it?”
Our worrying is like that. We sometimes expend a lot of energy on problems that don’t exist. While we all face real problems in life, we can sometimes create additional ones by thinking of all the bad things that “might happen” to us but never do.
One of the great challenges for worriers, is to turn every care into a prayer and then to stop there, leaving it with God (1 Peter 5:7; cf. Psalm 55:22). Some folks find this difficult to do, perhaps because they are pessimistic or sensitive by nature. But there is hope!
Paul’s counsel in Philippians 4:6 is not some mechanical formula, but a tested reality. Note that he had found peace and contentment (Philippians 4:7; Philippians 4:11). Yet, note the phrase in Philippians 4:12 — “I have learned.”
Learning takes time. It is a process marked by trial and error, and by perseverance. Let’s be glad that our Lord is patient with us — even when we tear up old newspapers and spread them around!
Help me, Lord, to place my worries
At Your feet in prayer,
Then to trust Your love and goodness
As I leave them there. —Spurgeon
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