November 12, 2012 (Monday)
My grandmother did her washing in the back yard of her home in Houston when I was a pre-schooler. I remember seeing her boil some of the laundry in a big black pot on a wood fire. She put “bluing” in the water for the white clothes. She hand washed each item on a “washboard,” a metal board with serrated rows. She had to wring each item to remove excess water before hanging them out on clotheslines. It was a happy day for her when she was presented with a “wringer,” two rollers controlled by a crank and attached to a washtub. No more hand wringing from then on. Just feed the piece into the space between the rollers, turn the crank and watch the water flow from the cloth as the piece made its way through the device. Sounds easier than it was. It was still strenuous work to turn the crank and sometimes it required loosening the rollers to get a stubborn piece through the rollers.
In Matthew 13:22, Jesus said that the cares of this world choke the Word of God and prevent it from taking root in a person’s soul. In its Old English form, the word literally means “to wring,” as my grandmother did with the clothes. Grasping each item tightly, she twisted and twisted until the cloth released the water in it. That’s the picture of what worry does to us. It wrings us out. It’s hard on us.
The same word means “to strangle,” as a wolf strangles a sheep, for example.
There are other definitions, etc., but you get the picture. Worry is not a good thing for us. It is a condition in which we are our own worst enemy as we pester ourselves continually.
I like the Living Bible Paraphrase of Paul’s advice: “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-8 TLB).