Worry #3, Misplaced Focus:

My umbrella is broken:

The counter in Kathy's kitchen was just covered with tiny parts from a broken umbrella. It was really a nice rain-shield--one of those little jobs that folds up into a nice, small bundle and deploys one-handed with just the push of a button. At least it did. Right before I disassembled it all pushing the button did was cause the nice little bundle to shoot out to the end of the spring-loaded shaft. Actually opening the umbrella required three hands, and to keep it open you had to grasp the shaft up next to the cloth--so much for convenience.

It insulted me:

I figure that when the Lord said that people are supposed to take dominion over creation that the mandate included recalcitrant bumbleshoots, so I tore into the thing. My hat is off--leaving my head wet--to the engineers that designed that thing.

I gave up:

Maybe--and that is a big "maybe"--if I had hung in there I could have gotten the broken string re-strung and all the springs and pins back in place, but after a few minutes I decided that continuing to work on the portable foul-weather-shelter would be a wrong use of my time and energy.

I decided not to worry about it.

Worry always involves a misplaced focus.

In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus tells us that when we worry about earthly stuff that we are focused on the wrong thing. Colossians 3:1-2 reinforces the thought.
When Jesus visited the home of Martha and Mary, He told Martha that her focus was wrong. She was worrying herself about all the tasks she saw as necessary. Homemakers everywhere rise up in her defense, but the Lord told the busy hostess that Mary her sister had made the better choice.
In Philippians 2:20 Paul spoke approvingly of Timothy's "genuine concern" for the believers at Philippi, yet he used the very same word in 4:6 when he told them, and us, to "not be anxious for anything." The key is focus.
In Matthew 10:19 Jesus carries this matter of focus to an extreme that makes me uncomfortable, yet there it is. Even in life and death situations my focus is to be on trusting God rather than figuring out how I can make it happen.

OK, I've raised more questions than I had umbrella parts on the counter.

Stay tuned. It continues to be . . .STTA.