This short weekly newsletter is devoted to simple ideas that can boost community and individual mental wellness and also give my readers a pick-me-up at the end of the week. Do you have a tip for a future Mental Health Minute? Email me!
Two weeks ago, I wrote a Mental Health Minute about managing our worry. It’s such a meaningful topic that I couldn’t fit all my ideas into just one post. That post focused on considering the actual consequences of situations. Today, let’s talk about control. I turn to the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:
How much worry arises from things entirely beyond our control? A whole darn lot of it. And when it is entirely outside our control, how will the worry change our level of control? Not a single bit.
Yet, we worry anyway.
Like I wrote in that prior Mental Health Minute, my brain can fixate on an issue and fully distract me from everything else going on my life. It is terrible. I do not hate many things, but I hate THAT. And in many cases, it is entirely outside my control. I can create anxiety, fill up hours of a day, distract myself from important things, and still not have any more control over the matter than when I started.
I know many of you share this same struggle. It deals us misery for no good reason. So remember, friends: consider the birds. Jesus is trying to remind us in that instruction not to worry about things that we cannot control. If you have a problem in your life and you have some control over it, take action where you can. But if all the worrying in the world still won’t do you a bit of good, take a step back, take a deep breath, and consider the birds. You’ll be better off.
Happy Friday, friends!
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the “Rural Church and State” and “West of 98” podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found. Check out the West of 98 Bookstore with book lists for essential reads here.