I used to get my exercise mountain climbing over mole hills, worrying about all the bad things that might happen to me, to my loved ones, or even to the world and universe. When I was a boy my dear father would tell me that nine out of ten things we worry about never do happen. But that would only leave me worrying about the one in ten. Now I can look back on my life and say with Mark Twain, “I am an old man now, and I’ve known many great troubles, but most of them never happened.” Worry is truly the rust of life destroying its brightness and weakening its power.

Thankfully, my mind and heart are coming to rest in the wonderful words of the apostle Paul in Romans 8. In this passage Paul assures us that God works all things together for good according to His great purpose for us (Romans 8:28). Then Paul imagines, he awfulizes, all the things that might conceivably happen to us:

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long;we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered’” (Romans 8:35-37).

Quick comes Paul’s retort to all such awfulizing:

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).

I take a highlighter to this Romans 8 passage and highlight the awful things I might worry about, the things that might seemingly shatter my life.It’s all there: HARDSHIP, DISTRESS, PERSECUTION, FAMINE, NAKEDNESS, PERIL, even DEATH. Just in case Paul has left out any awful things that might happen to us, he even throws in THINGS PRESENT and THINGS TO COME. Then Paul concludes that NOTHING! NOTHING! can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Truly, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Once when I was speaking on the value of meditation on Scripture, a woman told me that she did not know how to meditate. So I asked her, “Do you know how to worry?” She readily responded, “Oh yes, for sure I know how to worry!” “Then, you know how to meditate,” I encouraged her. “You know how to go over and over something in your mind.”

Instead of worrying, or awfulizing, here is something to meditate on, to keep going over again in our minds: NOTHING WILL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. And that means, NOTHING!

TAKE AWAY

Name and reflect on the thoughts and feelings today’s reading stirs in you. Take a few moments to talk with God about them.