Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air…
So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
— Matthew 6:25-32
Following the Call—Chap. 42: Beyond Worry
You get what you serve. A cure of care. Wisdom for the worried. Your turn.
When God first made humankind, he made provision for all our needs. This has been true ever since. God has already “added all these things.”
— Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
You Get What You Serve
Does Jesus expect us to actually live free of care? Who of us is free from worrying? Don’t we all fret about something? What about the child or spouse battling cancer? What is going to happen if there is recession? What about all the mass shootings? Where will the next hate crime occur? What about climate change and that cursed virus?
In this particular passage, Jesus addresses a very specific kind of worry: Will I have enough food, drink, and provision to live free of want tomorrow? Unbelievers worry they won’t, and run after material security to ensure they will have enough (and more). The result? Worry, and more worry! They get what they serve: earthly treasures, yes, but also the cares of this world. We, on the other hand, are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The result? Enough for today and peace for tomorrow.
Basilea Schlink notes, “It is not the actual needs and sufferings, but rather the worrying that brings sorrow into our lives.” This kind of sorrow can be just as debilitating, if not worse, as suffering loss or pain. Worry robs the soul of peace and keeps us from living life well.
How ironic. For rarely is life itself, however difficult, completely unbearable, and however materially well-off we may be, it never seems to be enough. “What is unbearable in life,” writes Anthony de Mello, “is what you think is going to happen in five hours or in five days; and those words you keep saying in your head, words like, ‘This is terrible, this is unbearable, how long is this going to last,’ and so on” (The Way to Love). For what does your anxiety do? “It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; but, oh, it empties today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil, it makes you unfit to cope with it when it comes. It does not bless tomorrow, it robs today” (Alexander MacLaren).
Jesus’ message is simple: Being free from care is as important as having our basic needs met. Living well is not a matter of having enough or of having the assurance of having enough but of possessing the kind of treasure which thieves cannot steal and rust cannot destroy: peace, love, and joy. These are what you get when you serve God, not mammon.
A Cure for Worry
Underlying Jesus’ teaching about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field is a paradox. When we place our full trust in God we will receive all we need to flourish. This means that the carefree life is not dependent upon whether the sea is calm and the ship of our lives glides pleasantly along. Rather, it is found in the One who transcends the transitory. It is through him we live and move and have our being. Helmut Thielicke explains:
Freedom of worry is such that even when the waves rise high, we have the assurance that we are in God’s good hands, and whether we go down or not, we know that the winds and weather can neither harm us nor thwart God’s will. And it is this we are created to care most about…. Care can only be cured by care. Care about many things can be cured only by care about “the one needful thing.”
And what is that “one needful thing?” Thielicke continues:
Only one thing is needful and that is this hand of Jesus Christ himself. When we hold on to that hand we have everything—life and salvation, peace and freedom from care; and then quite incidentally, … we are also given what this hand has to give: the pennies and crumbs, the food and drink, shoes and clothing, and everything that we need for life.
And the reverse is also true. He who does not have this one and only hand sinks into care and anxiousness, into fear of thieves and moths.” (Life Can Begin Again)
In the end, the root of worry lies not in having too little but in the thought of losing some benefit we prize more than God. In Christ, however, we can learn to take up our cross and say yes to all that life might throw at us and be free to fulfill God’s good purpose. When Christ and his priorities are uppermost in our hearts, we can be assured that God will give us everything we need to do everything he asks.
Wisdom for the Worried
Imitate a little child, whom you see holding tight with one hand to his father, while with the other he gathers strawberries or blackberries from the wayside hedge. Even so, while you gather and use this world’s goods with one hand, always let the other be fast in your heavenly Father’s hand, and look round from time to time to make sure that he is satisfied with what you are doing, at home or abroad. Beware of letting go, under the idea of making or receiving more—if he forsakes you, you will fall to the ground at the first step. When your ordinary work or business….be such as to require your undivided attention, then pause and look to God, even as navigators who make for the haven they would attain, by looking up at the heavens rather than down upon the deeps on which they sail. So doing, God will work with you, in you, and for you.
— Francis de Sales
Is it our business to pry into what may happen tomorrow? It is a difficult and painful exercise which saps the strength and uses up the time given us today. Once we give ourselves up to God, shall we attempt to get hold of what can never belong to us—tomorrow? Our lives are his, our times in his hand, he is Lord over what will happen, never mind what may happen. When we prayed, “Thy will be done,” did we suppose he did not hear us? He heard indeed, and daily makes our business his. If my life is once surrendered, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in his hand but would be safer in mine!
— Elisabeth Elliot
Your Turn
What has helped you to overcome worry? Just reply to this email to leave a comment.
Thank you Gretchen for what you express. Just being in nature can be so healing.
I confess that I am a worrier. I don't know why, I think it's my nature and a lack of trust in God. This spring when I contemplated the "birds of the air" I decided that the beginning of my morning prayer would simply be to listen to the birds outside. Springtime, and even now they have a lot to say and I think they are good teachers. They also have a lot to do, but it's not saving for tomorrow, instead it's living for today. I imagine that they don't get depressed or anxious either. I just listen to them for a while and ask the Lord that I could be more like them. It's helped much in letting go of worry.