Not To Worry

" Therefore, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet their Heavenly Father feeds them. And who among you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothing? Will God not much more clothe you -- O you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' Or ' What will we drink?' Or ' What will we wear?' Indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring enough worries of its own [tomorrow will take care if itself]. Sufficient for a day is its own trouble. [ Today's trouble is enough for one day].  [ Matthew 6: 25-34].


So much of what passes for "news" is actually gossip. We discuss endlessly what this famous person wore to the awards show, which designer clothing, whose fabulous jewels. Our examination in minute detail becomes envy. Or greed.

Or, we take photos of our plates of food when we eat out, then share the images of gluttony on our social media. Our friends, left at home with a bowl of noodles for supper, feel left out and deprived.

There is an awful lot of collateral damage to worry:  Envy. Greed. Coveting. Despair.

I am certainly not mocking those with anxiety. The state of anxiety runs in my family. My grandmother had anxiety.

She used to stand in her kitchen and rap her wedding ring, mindlessly on the counter. I rarely saw her sit down. She was always finishing one thing and moving on to the next.

She grew up in the Great Depression. Her father died when she was young. When my grandmother died, my mother found an entire cabinet filled with canned goods, " just in case". Another cabinet contained many boxes of dry, powdered milk. None of this was even any good any longer. We threw it away.

You see now anxiety easily becomes Fear.

My mother inherited the anxiety.  She figured that she could solve her anxiety by controlling her universe and everyone around her. Her anxiety became a raw attempt at Control.

No human being could possibly abide by all her rules. She became isolated and alone, because no one could ever measure up to her expectations.

My mother very pointedly did not believe in God. She believed in the supreme power of the individual. She used to say that Christians believe that God will provide, but that belief was just a flimsy excuse to be lazy or passive; or an excuse to mess up our lives and blame God.

 But, when we make mistakes or fail in our attempts, we become more anxious, and even depressed.

If all we have going for us are our pathetic attempts to be like God, and rely on our "superhuman powers", then we do become failures. That is the surest path to self-hatred.

One day, a dear friend gave me my first Bible. I was flipping through the Scriptures and came upon Matthew 6. And my life changed!!

I realized that I CAN take things, one day at a time.

I could begin to see that, the fact that I cannot do everything myself means that I am only human. My human frailties do not make me a total loser.

My born again friends tell me to "give it to God".  I never knew what that meant?

Now, I see that some things in life are too huge for me to resolve or judge alone. A friend dies way too young, of cancer, leaving two tiny children. God, I cannot begin to process this alone!

A man abuses his precious daughter all her life, then dies before he can even confess it. Where is there any meaning in her life -- or his-- without a God?

Today, I replace worry with prayer. A teen struggles in Math? I pray that he understands. An elderly relative is very ill? I pray that he find peace.

God, today has enough trouble of its own. Let me rest in Your Arms for today. Let me feel Your presence, as I walk with You tomorrow, and always.

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2014. All Rights Reserved.