Distraction

How often do you think about your big toe?  I mean, honestly - do you give any thought to it at all?  I never did until several months ago when my left big toe started hurting.  First, I thought my shoes didn't fit right.  Blew that theory when I changed shoes and it still hurt.  Then, I decided it was gout.  Isn't that the disease where your big toe hurts?  Well, I looked it up.  Gout hurts a lot for a few days then it's done for awhile.  Guess that wasn't it either.  Finally, after several months, I did what I should have done in the first place.  I asked my doctor - then I wished I hadn't.  Arthritis.  Yep - that's what he said.  The "A" word.  I can take Tylenol for the pain.  What?  Do I take it all the time?  Will it really help?  Maybe it will go away.  Maybe it won't.  "Try not to use it too much," he said.  Seriously!  Who uses a big toe?
There is a point to all this whining.  My problems with my big toe got me thinking about how much I have thought about my toe over the last several months as opposed to all those months/years/decades when I never gave it a thought.  How much time have I wasted worrying, fretting, problem solving, decision making when there wasn't a thing I could do to change anything?  Where would I be right now if I had applied all those minutes to the pursuits God has put in front of me to do for Him?  Would my next book be finished?  Would my house be clean?  Would I be caught up at work?  Would I have gotten more sleep?
The scriptures clearly tell us not to worry.  Why then, do we do it?  Are we simply not capable of putting needless worry aside?  I have decided to make that one of my life's pursuits - leaving my worries with God and spending my time seeking Him instead of fretting over all the distractions that get in the way.  Can I actually do this?  I don't know.  Perhaps I'll worry over it.  Maybe it's my first lesson.