MY BLOG POSTS

I just did a Google search on “Worry.” It turned up 504, 000,000 pages. Pages that define worry, pages that diagnose worry, pages that medicate worry, pages that worry about worry. Five hundred and four million!

Compare that to searches on ”Peace”: 198,000,000; “Calm”: 270,000,000; “Relaxed”: 166,000,000.

We are worriers. We worry about all kinds of things. We worry about things in the past that we can’t change. We worry about things in the future that we can’t control. We worry about things in the present that we can’t predict.

I looked up the origin of “worry,” and found it comes from an Old English word meaning “to strangle.” That sounds about right, don’t you think? Worry strangles us, makes it hard to breath, hard to function. It holds us back.  There is nothing positive about worry. Nothing beneficial. None of us gets to the end of a tough week and says, “Boy, I am sure glad I worried so much!”

We know worry is bad. It is unhealthy. It gives us stomach aches and headaches and muscle aches. But did you know it isn’t just bad…it’s a sin.

In Matthew 6:34, Jesus says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

DO NOT WORRY. Not, “May I make a suggestion?” or “Hey, you know, why don’t you try…?” or “It might be a good idea…” No, this is a command, the subject being YOU. That’s right. YOU. Don’t worry.

Here’s the good news: if God commands us to do something, we can be certain He will empower us to do it. It isn’t impossible.

But it is hard.

Jesus knew that. So he didn’t just leave us with the command, he also left us with a solution, an antidote to worry:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Mt. 6:33

So when you catch yourself worrying about something – a big test, a cute boy, an angry boss, a broken-down car, a huge bill, a frightening medical diagnosis…Stop. Pray. Seek God’s kingdom, God’s righteousness. Invite him into your problem, give Him free reign in your soul, allow him to replace that worry with peace, even joy. Think about HIM, not the problem. Because HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness are eternal. Your problems are not. Don’t waste your time worrying. Spend your time seeking God: his kingdom, his righteousness. “And all these things shall be given to you as well.”

I know the calendar says summer just started. But that’s not how we roll in the McGee household. School got out May 28 and we took off June 1. We live in Florida, and, yeah, what this says…

I love Florida, but we have lots of family and friends in places other than Florida, and summertime is when we get to see them. So we took off and spent our first night away in Rainbow City, AL, visiting friends. We were there the same time as Kenny Rogers. But as I like his chicken far more than his music (sorry fans!), we stayed at the Wallace’s house and enjoyed some sweet fellowship and delicious food. After going to church with them in the morning, we drove up to McKenzie, TN to visit my grandmother.

She is almost 85 years old, and in amazing shape. My kids love visiting her because 1) She is awesome and 2) the town she lives in is awesome. We are city folks, so the idea of having a bunch of friends all within walking distance blows their minds. They even met a cousin they never knew. Granted, he was a 3rd or 4th cousin. But a cousin nonetheless. Another benefit of small towns: my grandfather was one of seven kids, and they all lived in this area, so relatives are all over the place!

Because McKenzie is just a couple hours from the Thomas Nelson headquarters, I drove over there one day and spent the morning with the amazing TNZ Fiction team. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my publisher? We talked about all things Anomaly and just life in general. They always send me away with a pile of books (na-na-na-na-nah!) and this time, they gave me something I’ve never seen before: a “Flat” of the Anomaly cover! So cool!!

Dave and I left the girls with Grandmother in McKenzie and drove with Thomas up to my sister Alexis’ house in Owensboro, KY. We hung out with her and her husband Nathan, and Thomas played with their sweet daughter, Calla.

Then Dave and I drove over to Louisville KY, where I spent the week grading AP Lit essays. Dave teaches online and he is finishing up his doctorate, so he spent the days working in the hotel room. Evenings were date nights. This is our fourth year to go up to Louisville for the Reading. I love being around all those English teachers (1000+!) and picking their brains for new ideas. And Dave and I enjoy the mini-getaway! Louisville is a cool city.

When that was done, we drove back to McKenzie. Alexis was down there with Calla (and Thomas), so the four cousins got to play, play, play. Very fun! We were going to go straight home after that. But…we decided to go home via Texas instead! My other sister, Becca, and niece, Nora, live in Ft. Worth. And we used to live in Midlothian (south of Dallas), so Texas is in our blood, and we need to go back every once in a while for a little Lone Star love. It was a SUPER short trip (we could only stay two days…the girls had to get back for camp!), so we didn’t see all the friends we wanted to see, but we did get to see some. It was well worth the drive! We even got to stop off and see friends in Arkansas on the way down. So fun!

Thursday morning, June 19, we got up bright and early and began the 1200 mile drive back to Tampa. Because we drove right through Monroe, LA, we had to stop off at Duck Commander Headquarters (please tell me you know what that is!). No sightings of the Robertsons, but we did get some cool photos :).

We got home last night, tired, sore, but happy, happy, happy.

And THAT’S what I did on my summer vacation!

Our family lived in Costa Rica in 2005. When we first moved there, I hated it.

I know. You’re thinking I’m a crazy whiner. And you’re right. But here’s the deal: I was expecting tropical paradise. The reality – at least in San Jose – wasn’t quite that.

We didn’t have a car when we lived there, so we walked. A lot. And those first few weeks, all I saw was what was on the ground – it was nasty. And when I happened to look up a little, I just saw all the gates in front of the houses, the barbed wire protecting the gates, the armed guards protecting the barbed wire protecting the gates.Until we moved to Costa Rica, the only foreign countries I had visited were Canada and Spain. And, while Costa Rica is not third world, it is not Canada or Spain, either.

So I whined and complained and wiped the mold and trash and animal debris from my shoes everyday and wondered why in the world people I had talked to raved so much about this country. It was smelly and gross and the end of our year there couldn’t come fast enough.

And then, one day, I looked up. Way up. And suddenly, immediately, my perspective changed.

San Jose is in a valley, completely surrounded by mountains. Beautiful, green mountains. Above the mountains, there is an incredibly blue sky. Having grown up in central Florida and moved to north Texas, mountains were a vacation destination, not a daily sight. And these mountains were amazing. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. Then I started noticing other things. I’d be sitting in class (we were studying Spanish at the amazing Spanish Language Institute) and see a hummingbird flitting outside. Occasionally, we’d even seen parakeets. I looked around and saw trees with fruits that I couldn’t identify. In our own front yard, we had an avocado tree — free, fresh guacamole year ’round! I started noticing smells, too. Good smells. Coffee beans roasting. Bread being baked. Tropical flowers.

In less than two months, I went from hating this city to being in love with it. I barely even noticed the nasty ground, the bars or barbed wire. By the time our year there had ended, I was in mourning. I didn’t want to leave. I knew I’d miss it so much. And I do.

I’m sure you can see the spiritual parallels to this story. I know God has reminded me of this often in the years since. It’s easy to see the “yuck” factor in our lives. People we don’t like, situations  that annoy us. We can get stuck looking at the yuck, thinking about the yuck, wallowing in the yuck. And we miss the beauty. It’s there. Even in the worst of situations. Sometimes, I know, you have to look really hard. You have to force your eyes up. Way up. But beauty is there because God is there. Right with you. Every step of the way.

Ps.121:1-2

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—     where does my help come from? ² My help comes from the Lord,     the Maker of heaven   and earth.