DEFEATING WORRY WITH HINDSIGHT | DAVID STUART

Two years ago, at exactly 7.59am on a sunny Thursday Morning in August, a nervous young 18- year-old boy was sitting with the computer in the front room frantically pressing the refresh button over an over again until something would appear on the screen. After what felt like a lifetime but in reality, was only a few seconds, his A level results appeared on the screen, he held his breath and then groaned loudly. As you may have gathered by now, this nervous wreck was me and I ended up not getting the results I wanted (damn you chemistry). With Liverpool being my first choice and me not making the grades, I instead had to settle to study at a University called Derby Uni. I really didn’t know if this was the right place for me and I really questioned if it was the right move and it worried me quite a lot. However, although I didn’t know it at the time, God had his hand over all of this and in hindsight, I look back and realise that Derby was exactly where God wanted me and I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

Luke 12:22-31 (New Living Translation) says;

“Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus said, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food, and your body more than clothing. Look at the ravens. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds! Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? And don’t be concerned about what to eat and what to drink. Don’t worry about such things. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.””

“God knows our every need even when we don’t think he does…”

Considering all of the struggles and hardships of everyday life, Jesus takes this all into account and simply tells us not to worry about anything and to leave all our stresses behind. In the times of Jesus, ravens were an unclean animal and people disregarded them as food, yet Jesus cleverly makes the point that regardless of this, God still provides for them. God ensures they have life; he cares for them and if God provides for every single one of his creatures, he will certainly provide for us in every season. Jesus carries on emphasising this point by illustrating how wealthy King Solomon was during his time, his splendour during his reign was beyond magnificent. However, Jesus states that the flowers that grow in the field are even more beautiful than Solomon and they get all of their beauty from God. Tomorrow, when they wither, they will be gathered up as dust and be thrown into the fire, this should encourage us. If God takes such great care of flowers with such a short life, then think how much more will he do for us. When we have God on our side, we never have to worry or be concerned of the things that have already happened. People with no faith worry about what to eat or drink, but people with a faith have no such worry as God knows our every thought and need.

“God doesn’t want our past mistakes or decisions of our past to weigh us down for the rest of our lives…”

Today’s society associates my generation with being fixated by who is coupled up with who on Love Island, going to bed at 2am and then ordering a ‘Deliveroo’ delivery but most importantly we are associated with the rise in students coming forward with mental health problems. In a recent report done by the BBC, British Universities say they’re at risk of failing my generation due to the lack of mental health care support at university. Out of 14,000 students surveyed by the BBC only 14% reported saying they had life satisfaction, 17% stated they had a life that was “worthwhile” and 18% believe they live a life that is happy. A statistic which makes you hold your breath and put things into perspective is that in 2015, 134 students committed suicide. The problem our society has is that we burden students with the idea they have to succeed, have to have a perfect plan for after you finish your degree which has cost you thousands to attain, have to marry the girl of your dreams who is out of this world, oh…and the hardest bit you always have to show your best self on social media even if life is not going great. The worries in life can ravage the joy in our lives, I often have the ability to worry about major things in my life such as exams, money, situations when relationships breakdown. But like Jesus says in the passage, none of these worries add any significant moments to our lives. Worry only cripples our lives and can never fill us up or bring us contentment. God knows our every need even when we don’t think he does.

God doesn’t want our past mistakes or decisions of our past to weigh us down for the rest of our lives. He does not want worry to consume our happiness and to overcome us. We are not perfect human beings, we will never make all the right decisions. Relationships, friendships and family dynamics are all so complicated and God can see every one of our single thoughts and future decisions on what we will do when we are in these situations. The most comforting thing is that he does not expect perfection, it is okay if we don’t make all the right decisions and if we get things wrong. Hindsight and worry are interconnected because hindsight allows us to understand how fruitless worry is in our life, it brings nothing to our lives and will never satisfy us.

Matthew 6:34 (The Passion Translation):

“Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

*Finally, for all my student friends there is app called ‘enlitened’ which is being released this academic year to help to try and combat rising mental health on campus. It tries to give students an easy and quick way to provide feedback to the university experience. Secondly, it gives students expert advice to help them to improve their mental health and wellbeing at Uni. This advice becomes more tailored and relevant, the more the student engages with the app. Thirdly, the app should help the student to submit ideas to university and also allow them to help support other students’ ideas. And finally, people like myself can earn coins when we use the app to buy products on campus and online. I have no idea how good this app is as it hasn’t been released yet but it may be really good! I recently met with the Vice President of Welfare of Derby Uni to discuss Wellbeing and we are hoping for this app to be available as soon as possible (Link is below):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.enlitened&hl=en_US