A high-octane version of worry and anxiety that corrodes lives …

Technology is used every day to accomplish some truly great and valuable things.

It’s also used every day to corrode lives.

One way in particular is how technology provides platforms that give opportunity — and encouragement — for people to fret.

Don’t do that!

That’s not just my advice. Psalm 37, a psalm of David, begins with these three words: “Do not fret …”

The word “fret” gets little usage in the 21st century, but it used to be more commonplace. When people think about the word “fret,” they tend to think of worrying or to be anxious. Both of those are definitions included in Dictionary.com for the word “fret,” but the act of fretting has a deeper, and more destructive, connotation. This dictionary first offers this definition:

1. To feel or express worry, annoyance, discontent, or …

Then it gives another insight to the meaning of the word:

2. To cause corrosion; gnaw into something.

This is in reference to a process called “fretting.” For example, when a strong metal must be manipulated, sometimes a powerful acid is applied that eats away at the metal. That “eating away” process is called “fretting.” Another meaning of “fretting” is when two metals rub together, causing a potentially dangerous wearing away:

“Fretting is wear that occurs as two or more materials are repeatedly moved against one another under a load. Vibration is one of the most common causes of fretting. Fretting causes the surface of one or more of the materials involved to be degraded. This degradation often consists of grooves and pits. Surface degradation from fretting allows for corrosion of the materials to occur.”

This process of fretting can be seriously destructive. The April 29, 1992 issue of the Chicago Tribune reported: “A stripped gear in the propeller controls of a commuter plane caused it to nosedive into the Georgia woods last April, killing former U.S. Senator John Tower of Texas and twenty-two others, the government concluded Tuesday. A gear that adjusted the pitch of the left engine’s propellers was slowly worn away [fretting] by an opposing part with a harder titanium coating, the National Transportation Safety Board said.”

Fretting can cause the strongest of metals to be corroded, misshapen, and eventually to “fail,” just as a person “fretting” over something can have a corrosive and destructive affect on a life. Evie Megginson gives us an example of how people can allow fretting to corrode the simplest of experiences in life:

“An American woman whose dream of riding a train through the English countryside came true. After boarding the train she kept fretting about the windows and the temperature, complaining about her seat assignment, rearranging her luggage, and so on. To her shock, she suddenly reached her journey’s end. With deep regret she said to the person meeting her, “If I’d known I was going to arrive so soon, I wouldn’t have wasted my time fretting so much.”

That takes me back to my opening point. We see technology used every day for people to publicly “fret” — to allow things, people, and events to so wear away at them that it corrodes their peace and joy they could have in Christ (in any circumstance) if only they didn’t fret. Instead, they tweet and post away about the evil things people do, or allow envy to wear away the strength of their lives.

To that end, scripture offers this:

“Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away,” Psalm 37:1-2.

Fretting comes easily to us, partly because, as Brian Cavanaugh highlights in this tidbit, we can always find something to fret about if so inclined:

A sickly widow had two sons on whom she relied for financial support. One son sold umbrellas. The first thing the mother did every morning was to look out to see if the sun was shining or if it looked like it was going to rain. If it was cloudy, her spirits were good because there was a chance that it might rain and her son would sell some umbrellas. But if the sun was shining, she was miserable all day because no umbrellas would be sold.

The widow’s other son sold fans. Every morning that it looked like rain, she would get depressed because without the sun’s heat, no one was likely to buy fans.

No matter what the weather was, the widow had something to fret about.

While commiserating with a friend one day, the friend remarked, “Perk up. You’ve got it made. If the sun is shining, people will buy fans; if it rains, they’ll buy umbrellas. All you have to do is change your attitude. You can’t lose.”

When that simple thought sank in, the widow lived happily ever after.

Jesus said something similar as He noted how people fret about life’s most basic needs, and capped His teaching with an antidote to fretting:

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life — whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today,” Matthew 6:25-34.

It’s not just the “little” (big for some) things like clothes and food people fret about. Life does have very real, very big, “troubles,” but again Jesus offers a reason why we shouldn’t fret about even those things:

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world,” John 16:33.

Basic worry and anxiety cause their own harm in our lives, but to fret is like a powerful acid eating away at and corroding even the strongest of metals. Instead of fretting, heed the words of Christ and, instead, seek the kingdom of God above all else, and focus on living a righteous life; while you do that, God will give you everything you need.

So there really is no need to fret.

Scotty