1. Getting sick.
This not only applies to the serious parasites, worms, typhoid…the plague, sicknesses that most people would be worried about, but also includes motion sickness (which I have a horrible time with) and my stomach rebelling against me (infer what you will with that one).
2. Bugs.
Spiders, roaches and mosquitos (cringe). I know all three will be a certainty on the Race but that doesn’t diminish the knot in my stomach that they give me.
3. Something happening at home while I am gone.
I know the world doesn’t revolve around me and life here in the states will go on without me but I am bummed/worried that things will go on at home (marriages, babies, jobs, sicknesses) and I wont be there when it happens.
Basically I am a person who is naturally anxious and yes a little bit (ok A LOT a bit) a hypochondriac. Going on the Race where there is a pretty certain possibility there will be bugs, no control over what happens at home, and no alone time when my stomach doesn’t like the Indian food, frightens me.
So much can go wrong. So many things can change. My world next year will be a smorgasbord of changing variables.
But this is what God has to say about my fear and worry:
For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” – Isaiah 41:13
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33
“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? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. … – Matthew 6:25-27
It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” – Deuteronomy 31:8
I only mentioned a few but there are so many verses in the Bible that talk about fear and anxiety and how our Lord can conquer them all. When I start to get overwhelmed I read through them and mediate on how amazing God is and how He (the creator of the universe that includes spiders and spicy food) is with me, holding my hand through everything that will happen next year. Nothing (and I mean nothing) can separate us from His love. And like the great Chris Tomlin says “And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us. And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.”
But a little insect repellent and pepto couldn’t hurt.
