Work…and Worry…

There are situations and circumstances that would prematurely wear us all ways if we would let them. There are rough, eroding experiences that, with some of, leave raw, deep wounds, but with others seem somehow to heal sooner or not to cut so cruelly.

In some we sometimes see so tight a tenseness that the wearing process is painfully apparent. And then, in contrast, we sometimes see someone who has lived through not less⎯but who has somehow learned to live with comparative freedom from the full effects of some of life’s frictions.

We all have hurts; some of us harbor them. We all have misunderstandings; some of us magnify them. We all have to deal at times with difficult, irritable, unreasonable, unpleasant people; some of us resent them too much and overlook too little. We all have annoyances, frustrations, disappointments. We are all subject to some sorrow, to sickness, sometimes to the loss of loved ones, to unkind comment, to the cutting edge of criticism. No one’s life is lived completely free from the conditions that could cause friction.

We all have to make adjustments. But by faith and forbearance, by the patient withholding of judgment, and by being so absorbed in useful work that it leaves little time to brood, we can often avoid the abrasive quality of bitterness, of harsh eroding resentments⎯and free ourselves of much of the effects of friction, and live longer than we would otherwise live, and be healthier and happier while we are living.

Again it should be said that worry, a bad conscience, pressure and impatience, resentment and unreconciled sorrow all provide the friction that sometimes makes the going rough and raw. But faith, forbearance and work are part of the formula that frees us from friction⎯faith in the purposefulness of life, in the mercy and love and justice of an Eternal Father, faith in ultimate understanding and complete compensation. Faith, forbearance, and useful work can free us from much of the worry and friction that would otherwise wear us away.