I WORRY. Walter Kelly, creator of the old Pogo comic strip, once said: “When I don’t have anything to worry about, I begin to worry about that.”
Mr. Kelly illustrates well the problem that so many of us have. We just have a built-in tendency to worry.
Right now, I worry about Kevin Barnwell and his health. I worry about Candi and the girls and Mike and Lynn and Tracy and how they are handling Kevin’s health concerns.
I worry about Afghan women. I worry about suicide rates — 18 per day on average — among military veterans and how the recent events in Afghanistan may contribute to an increase. I worry about my children and grandchildren. About my mom.
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I WORRY ABOUT the ministry of this church. How attendance has been affected by COVID-19. What does the future hold? Are folks worshiping from home being adequately ministered to?
I worry about who will step up to the call to be elders and deacons for the coming years.
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YOU MIGHT THINK this section from Matthew is hard to understand and hard to live. “Therefore, do not worry.” After looking at this section, here’s where I’ve come down. There’s a difference between being concerned and worried.
Being concerned, caring, planning, and responsible are good. All the above that I mentioned concern me. There’s a difference between concern and worry. Concern means I can leave these things with God after praying for them, but worry can’t let go of them.
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ANOTHER THING to notice is Jesus is talking about stuff. The text says you can’t serve God at the same time as you spend all your time thinking about, playing with, and taking care of all your stuff.
Jesus says the most important rules in the world are “love God” and “love other people.”
You can’t love God and others and also “love your stuff.” To be obsessed with having the right stuff, having all the stuff you want, and taking care of your stuff.
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THE OPPOSITE of worry/fear/anxiety is faith — or better still — trust. If we trust in God as simply and completely as the birds of the air and the flowers of the field do, we will not be anxious.
Don’t be obsessed over food, or clothing, or longevity of life — stuff.
We are encouraged to live by faith, trusting God to provide all our material needs. It seems to suggest that one does not need to work or prepare for the future at all; we can simply relax knowing that God will take care of our needs.
Jesus is not encouraging us to have a laid-back, “whatever” attitude. We still have responsibilities but would not be anxious about them.
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BIRDS ARE an example of a proper attitude toward food: they work hard to find it, but they do not store it for possible future shortages.
Worry and preoccupation is futile. People desire a long life, but excess concern for it will not lengthen it. Wild lilies are only brightly colored for a few weeks but what can compare to their beauty — or the beauty of God’s creation?
The “grass” ends up being “thrown into the oven” as fuel for cooking.
But if God cares for such plants, how much more will He provide for, clothe those who are faithful to him. So do not be preoccupied with your physical needs. After all, we pray in the Lord’s Prayer “give us this day our daily bread.”
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TO BE WORRIED or anxious about material possessions fails to recognize God’s great generosity. Instead, we seek security in possessions. Jesus wants to undermine that idea and eventually replace it with risky trust in God. We can’t overlook the strong verb in Verse 33 — strive/seek/desire/endeavor:
“[S]eek first his kingdom and his righteousness.”
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TRUST IS SEEKING God’s kingdom and righteousness. Trust is the mission of desiring God first, confident that other matters will fall in place.
If I give up a preoccupation with anxiety and security, it will seem like I would have time and energy for seeing to the needs of others around me. When I’m not worried about my future and security, I have time to pray for the women of Afghanistan, to reach out and care for friends in distress, to work with others for the benefit of the church and this congregation.
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JESUS ENDS this part of His teaching with an added reminder that each day brings trouble of its own. Why, then, would we want to bring tomorrow’s trouble into today and deal with it twice? As Scottish author, poet and minister George MacDonald pointed out a century ago:
“No [one] ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a [person] can bear.”
Take one day at a time. Some days it is one step at a time.
