Cure Worry With a Song
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Luke 12:22, 23, NIV.
J. C. Penney, the genius behind one of the world’s largest chains of department stores, had built his business to a multimillion-dollar level when he lost $40 million in the crash of 1929. Three years later, when he was 56 years of age, he had to sell out to satisfy his creditors, leaving him virtually broke. He worried so much that he couldn’t sleep. The stress from his chronic fatigue depressed his immune system, and he suffered a relapse of the chicken pox virus that had been dormant in his nerves since he had had the rash as a child. The recurrence of this virus, called shingles, causes severe pain. He was hospitalized at the Battle Creek Sanitarium and given sedatives, but he still tossed and turned all night. Broken physically and mentally, he was overwhelmed with a fear of death and wrote farewell letters to his wife and son, since he didn’t expect to live until morning.
Then he awoke to the staff singing in the hospital chapel, “Be not dismayed whate’er betide, God will take care of you . . .” Following the music to its source, he slipped into a back row. Mr. Penney said something happened at that moment that he couldn’t explain. “I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realized that I alone was responsible for all my troubles. I knew that God with His love was there to help me. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am 71 years old, and the most dramatic and glorious minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning.”
As a result of the renewing of J. C. Penney’s mind through the power of a song, he went on to rebuild his financial empire to well over the billion-dollar mark and celebrated with his family and friends his ninety-fifth birthday.
When you’re tempted to worry,what song could you think of or sing to relieve the stress?
J. C. Penney, the genius behind one of the world’s largest chains of department stores, had built his business to a multimillion-dollar level when he lost $40 million in the crash of 1929. Three years later, when he was 56 years of age, he had to sell out to satisfy his creditors, leaving him virtually broke. He worried so much that he couldn’t sleep. The stress from his chronic fatigue depressed his immune system, and he suffered a relapse of the chicken pox virus that had been dormant in his nerves since he had had the rash as a child. The recurrence of this virus, called shingles, causes severe pain. He was hospitalized at the Battle Creek Sanitarium and given sedatives, but he still tossed and turned all night. Broken physically and mentally, he was overwhelmed with a fear of death and wrote farewell letters to his wife and son, since he didn’t expect to live until morning.
Then he awoke to the staff singing in the hospital chapel, “Be not dismayed whate’er betide, God will take care of you . . .” Following the music to its source, he slipped into a back row. Mr. Penney said something happened at that moment that he couldn’t explain. “I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realized that I alone was responsible for all my troubles. I knew that God with His love was there to help me. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am 71 years old, and the most dramatic and glorious minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning.”
As a result of the renewing of J. C. Penney’s mind through the power of a song, he went on to rebuild his financial empire to well over the billion-dollar mark and celebrated with his family and friends his ninety-fifth birthday.
When you’re tempted to worry,what song could you think of or sing to relieve the stress?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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