Raise your hand if you’re a worrier. *raises hand*

They say most of the things you worry about never happen — to which the clever worrier quips, “See? That means it’s working!”

I embarrassed myself a little today, though. I knew my husband might put in some extra time at work, but when I noticed it was nearly eight o’clock… and the weather’s been rainy and gross… and he would tell me if he planned to be that late…. Cue the worrying.

I called him and didn’t get an answer. This isn’t that strange because he usually doesn’t answer when he’s driving, but I was feeling impatient and I was starting to get it in my head that something had happened to him.

Then he called me back. He was at a blood drive at church. “Sorry honey, I thought I told you this morning that I was going to give blood.”

“I don’t remember,” I pouted, privately thinking that if he really did tell me, then what else might he have told me in the semi-lucidity of morning that he now thinks I know when in actuality, I don’t?

Yay! Something new to worry about!

In all seriousness, worry is essentially a failure of faith, which is probably why the Bible reminds us so often not to worry. It’s said that there are 365 verses of Scripture telling us not to worry — and the blog 365 Days of Peace undertook the project of finding them.

Here are just a few, all spoke by Jesus in the Gospels:

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” -Matthew 6:25

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” -Matthew 6:34

“When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.” -Mark 13:11

“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span?” -Luke 12:25

The reasons in these verses are sound: worry takes focus away from what life is really about, it borrows trouble, it fails to trust in the Holy Spirit, and it is unproductive. And now that I think of it, I can’t come up with one good argument in favor of worrying — can you?