Father Todd: God tells us not to be afraid but to face life with confidence

Our View – Development toward dreams determined by detailed direction
January 4, 2012
Letter to Editor: Morgan City politics shaded by mayor
January 4, 2012
Our View – Development toward dreams determined by detailed direction
January 4, 2012
Letter to Editor: Morgan City politics shaded by mayor
January 4, 2012

We all have to deal with stress in our lives. The following is entitled “The Second Ten Commandments” by Ruth Bourdon.

“1. Thou shall not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human activities.


“2. Thou shall not be fearful, for most of the things we fear never take place.

“3. Thou shall not cross bridges before you come to them. No one yet has succeeded in accomplishing this.

“4. Thou shall face each problem as it comes. You can only handle one at a time anyway.


“5. Thou shall not take problems to bed with you. They make very poor bedfellows.

“6. Thou shall not borrow other people’s problems. They can better care for them than you can.

“7. Thou shall not try to relive yesterday for good or ill, for it is forever gone. Concentrate on what is happening in your life and be happy now.


“8. Thou will be a good listener, for only when you listen, do you hear ideas different from your own. Learning something is hard when you are talking, and some people know more than you.

“9. Thou shall not become bogged down by frustration, for 90 percent of it is rooted in self-pity and will only interfere with positive action.

“10. Thou shall count thy blessings, never overlooking the small ones, for many small blessings add up to a big one.”


A lecturer was showing how stress worked. He raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?” Answers ranged from 20- to 500 grams. The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight does not matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

He continued, “That’s the way it is when we deal with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, eventually, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we cannot carry on. As with the glass of water, we have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.”


When the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” This message of the angel is for us as well. God does not want us to be afraid. Someone counted 365 times in the Bible when God says, “Do not be afraid.” That’s one for every day of the year. God wants us to have a deep reverence and awe of his Majesty, but he does not want us to live in fear of him or anything else.

The angel also tells Mary, “You have found favor with God.” We might immediately think that this is because Mary as a young girl was a devoted Jew, faithful to God and holy. Although this was certainly true of Mary, that is not why the angel said that she had found favor with God. What the angel meant is that God had decided to favor Mary by choosing her to be the mother of the Savior.

The same can be said of us. We have found favor with God, not because of our faithfulness but because God in his remarkable goodness has decided to favor us with his love and his countless blessings. We can all say, “I have mysteriously found favor with God.” We can approach this new year knowing that God goes with us no matter what happens.