Willis Carrier - the inventor of our modern day air conditioning - also invented a very clever way of preventing worry from ruining his life. It happened when he was in the employ of a large company that had contracted with another company to install a gas-cleaning devise at its plant.

It cost $20,000 to come up with the devise but, to Carrier’s horror, it did not work. Not only was his company going to lose their $20,000 investment, they were also going to lose their $40,000 fee for the work.

Carrier was despondent. He just knew that the failure would cost him his job. You’ve probably been there before, yourself: Something you were responsible for at your job just didn’t work – and that something that didn’t work was a big something. Not only would you lose your job, but you would probably never get another one because everyone would know of your failure. You would have no job and no pay, so you would lose your home and your car and would starve to death and…

Anyway, Mr. Carrier was thinking along these lines when it hit him – it would either work out or it wouldn’t. If it didn’t and he lost his job,then he would get a new one. Armed with this practical philosophy, he set out to solve the problem… and he did!

Here were his three steps:

1. Figure out the worst that could possibly happen

2. Prepare yourself to accept it, if it comes to that

3. Improve upon the worst

Notice how nicely this works for the really big things… like serving God. Imagine you have sinned – what’s the worst that could happen? You could go to Hell! Now, improve upon the worst – in this case, it’s not accepting Hell, but repenting so that you can go to Heaven.

Now, if you have to pay a penalty for your sin, (like enduring the death penalty because you have to confess to a murder) then so be it! The worst that can happen now is that you get to be with God in Paradise a little earlier than you had anticipated.

Problem solved! If only it were that easy…

but it is!

“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life…”Jesus (As recorded in Matthew 6:25)