This is part one of Embracing Concern, Rejecting Worry—an excerpt series from Louie Giglio’s Winning the War on Worry.
Every chance I get, I’m telling people about how amazing Shelley is. She’s whip-smart, super talented, humble, wise, loving, gentle, and all-around fun. She’s beautiful both inside and out, and she has changed my life in more ways than I can possibly outline here.
We’ve been married now for thirty-six years, and over that time, I’ve come to appreciate many things about Shelley. But near the top on that list is the fact that she is an A-to-Z girl. Here’s what I mean by that.
People I lead and people who work for me know that I’m an A-to-B guy. I like big vision. I feel like it’s one of the things that God has uniquely gifted me for. I love to seek the huge endeavor, something that hasn’t been done by someone in quite that way before. But as soon as a new venture is getting traction and getting off the ground, I start to lose interest and move on. I helped get us from point A to point B (and, at times, a lot farther), but for me there are more ideas to be had, more visions to dream for.
That’s what I mean when I say I’m an A-to-B guy. So what do you think that means when I say that Shelley is an A-to-Z girl? It means that she is the planner, the strategist, and the executor of our duo. She takes an idea and carries it to completion, through every hoop and over every hurdle. She gets things done, and she doesn’t stop until things are finished—and finished well. I’ve usually moved on to seven new things while Shelley is actually making good on every plan we started.
I don’t know which of these two personalities you gravitate toward, but I do know that worry can infiltrate either.
We learned in the previous chapter about the anatomy of worry and how the different themes of worry are connected by the same thread: control. And while we determined that our ability to control our lives is an illusion, we still need to address the question of how we can reject control and fear while still accounting for planning, preparation, and concern. Because here’s the curveball: God calls you to steward what you have in your hands. He gives you decision-making authority over what He has entrusted to you.
In Matthew 25 Jesus told a parable that dealt with a master who went away for an extended period. Before he went away, he gave a considerable amount of money to three of his servants. To the first servant, Scripture says the master gave five talents. Don’t be confused by the small number—a talent was equivalent to twenty years of wages for a laborer1. To put that in context, the master gave his servant roughly the same amount of money as if he would have labored six days a week for a hundred years!
To the second servant, the master gave two talents, and to the last servant, the master gave one talent. Anyway, you may know how the story goes. The master left, and the servants managed the money. The first two invested it and leveraged it, likely in the cattle or agrarian industries of the day. But the third servant? He decided to follow a different path. Afraid of his master and the possibility of losing the money, he buried it. Better safe and in the ground than at risk and in the open.
The master returned and praised the servants who invested well. The master said that they were “good and faithful” (Matthew 25:21). They made a plan, prepared, and were concerned for the welfare of the work assigned to them. The master rewarded them by giving them even more than they were originally entrusted with.
What do we learn here? Planning isn’t a bad thing. In fact, being a good steward with our time and resources is one of the ways we can glorify God in this world. Ephesians 5:15–16 says to “be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
To keep reading this excerpt from Louie Giglio’s Winning the War on Worry, click here for part two and click here to grab a copy of this special resource.
- Lexham Bible Dictionary, s.v. n.d. “talent,” Accessed May 2, 2022, http://biblia.com/factbook/talent.
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