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Thought for the Day: Don't Worry, Have Faith; Don't Panic, Have Fun

I seems my coffee cup that praises the virtues of both coffee and bourbon has an even stronger Torah source than I had thought. Then I saw an amazing quote in the Pela Yo'eitz in his chapter on worry:
העבר אין, העתיד עדיין, דאגה מניין? קום שתה יין
Which translates (more or less) as: The past is no more, the future is not yet, why worry? Let's drink some wine. I have heard the first part before, but was very gratified to see his addition that wine-ing does help with worry.

The Pele Yo'eitz explains very simply. Whatever has happened, has happened. What about the future? That's one of two cases: (1) you can affect the outcome; (2) you can't. If its (1), then do it! You don't have time to worry in that case, because you have work to do. If you can't affect the outcome, so then worrying won't help either. Rhetorical question: When, then, does the situation demand or even allow worry? Obvious answer: It never does.

The depth and simplicity of this idea can be understood with an practical example. I saw a video on what a pedestrian should do if a car fails to stop in time. Now, of course, we are talking about the car was slowing down to turn or just misjudged (or didn't care about) the distance to the crosswalk. Still, even though the car is moving pretty slowly, it can do a lot of damage to a human. What's the advice? Jump and lift your leg that is closest to the car. Jumping lets one roll on the hood instead of being pushed down forcefully on the pavement. Lifting the leg closest to the car prevents the legs from being broken. (Instead pushing one leg against the other, the leg still on ground just gets pushed up.)

Consider well. This situation is not likely to happen even once in a person's life, so it will be sudden and unexpected if it does. Given that, who knows how likely one would be to remember the rules and execute them with the necessary alacrity. However, one thing is certain, panicking and/or fretting about the situation will absolutely guarantee failure. The only possible hope is that one remains calm and focused.

Now let's add one more consideration; a critical game-changer: HaShem runs the world. In the case of a random accident, the only hope is remaining calm. In reality, the only reasonable attitude is to remain calm. HaShem won't give you anything you can't handle, so nothing can possibly happen to you that is not for your benefit. As the Pela Yo'eitz puts it: either good for you physically or good for you spiritually; but always good for you. What's the good of being in these scary situations? The opportunity to take your faith and belief from the theoretical to the practical; to make them real.

Life with faith and belief is not less exciting.  After all, you feel real emotions and thrills during a roller coaster ride or watching a super hero movie; even though you know and belief with absolutely certainty that everything is being managed to the smallest detail. So too, your life. Faith and belief let you keep the excitement, but increase the fun.

One (a bit tongue in cheek) warning: While HaShem won't give you more than you can handle, He won't give you one drop less, either. After all, HaShem wants you to believe in yourself as much as He believes in you.
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