Not knowing what to do can worry the “dickens” out of you. Now I must confess that when I wrote this, I had to stop and look up the origins of the word “dickens.” It was worrying the dickens out of me that I didn’t know. As it turns out, “dickens” is an expression used to intensify or strengthen the experience of something and interestingly enough, comes from the word “devil.” Now that’s appropriate. Devils can worry the dickens out of you. The dickens you say!
I am sure Joseph what plagued by devils as he considered divorcing his newly pregnant fiancée. What to do? What to do, indeed! God tells us that if we lack wisdom we need only to ask Him for it. He promises to give it generously. Strange, but I have actually worried about not knowing God’s will for a particular something. A good friend once told me that if I really want God’s will, I should not worry whether He will supply it. The question is, do I really want His will? Once we truly desire God’s will, no matter what it might be, we should not worry, He will not only make it plain, He will give us His grace to do it. Faith in the face of our fears may certainly remove the dickens from us. 12/17/2007 ts
