What recourse do you have but to let go of worry? To keep even a little of worry is too much.

Worry comes from a sense of lack. Future lack. Maybe you have food in the fridge now, but what about next week? Maybe you have a good life now, but what about in ten years? What about accidents and all the other things that could happen, do happen, might have already happened?

Well, what about them? Life is slippery, beloveds. You can't hold on to it. Is that a bad thing? Isn't it all right that there is life?

It's true; anything can happen. All the marvels that can happen, and do happen. Is there a word in your language for advanced thoughts about the many-splendored events that can happen in life? Is there a great one-word antonym for worry? Who will invent it? Yes, let's replace the whole idea of worry, and also let's coin a word for the opposite of worry. Rosy-eyed does not work, for it has an implication of blindness or some kind of lack of reality, yet, beloveds, it is just as real that wonders befall in life as unwanted events. Even in your life, this is true. Have not goodness and mercy also befallen you?

Why must a thought like, "For whom the bells toll? They toll for you," strike terror in your heart? Why must bells imply something unwanted arriving? The bell could be the ice cream man's. It could be the bell for recess. It could be your doorbell announcing Christ at your door. Let the bells toll for you, beloveds. May you lift your eyes up and know the good that is on its way to you. It has been on its way to you for some time. Let life be full of surprises, and let them in.

Why wait for the shoe to drop when you might well be getting a whole new pair?

Why not choose gladness over gloom? Why would anyone choose gloom when there is so much else to choose? This is a fair question. Why would you choose sense of worry over sense of joy? Why have you? Anticipate joy, not worry, beloveds.

If life is a Christmas package, well, then, unwrap it. Open it up. Take it out. If you find a sweater, and it doesn't fit, enjoy the opening of the present anyway. Be sure you haven't missed anything. There could be something else in the box. Maybe a gold watch or diamond ring. Make sure you don't close the box too soon.

If today will hold a wonderful surprise for you, what could it be? What would you like it to be? Whom would you like to be at your door? What box would you like to arrive? What would be in it? Where would you like to go today? What path would you like to go down? What would you do differently today if you could, and why not do it, or at least some of it? At least, think about it.

Let Us prepare for the welcome day before you.

If you have been in the doldrums, get out. If you have been at the height of happiness, stay there. Are they not both choices?

When you were born, you were not stamped with doldrums. You were not stamped. Or, if you were, you were stamped with happiness. That was the seal given to you. Joy was your destiny. Accept no less. If you have been suffering, you can stop it now. Suffering was never pinned to you. You may have held on to it, but it was never yours to keep. Happiness is. Let happiness be your choice. Let worry and all that accompanies it go out the door. Stand for happiness, not worry. Hold out your hands in readiness to accept the glories that I have prepared for you this day.