A few years back psychologist Richard Carlson wrote a best-selling book titled, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. Carlson, who died ironically of a heart attack at age 45, got the idea for his book one day while driving his six-year-old daughter home from school.
They got caught in rush hour traffic. They spent 40 minutes or so creeping along the expressway. As they sat in their car, Carlson’s daughter looked out at all the other cars, also creeping along. And finally, she said, “Daddy, why are all the people mad?”
Her statement caused Carlson to begin looking at all the people stuck there in traffic. He realized that they did have grim, anxious looks on their faces. He knew they probably weren’t mad, but they sure didn’t look happy.
And it caused him to reflect on the causes of their unhappiness. Perhaps they were reviewing where they needed to be and what they needed to do once they got there. Perhaps there were children to pick up, errands to run, dinner to make, work brought home to do.
Or perhaps being stuck in traffic gave them the chance to think about things they were anxious about their families, their work, their health, etc. The result was that they looked mad. And so Carlson wrote his book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, for he was convinced that most of the things we worry over are really not worth worrying about in the first place. A God Notice
As Jesus says: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? (Matthew 6:25-27)
Don’t worry about getting older.
You still get to do stupid things….
Only a whole lot slower.
