Read Matthew
6
Some of you
may know and many more may have guessed that I have TSDS. That’s Teacher Spouse Derangement
Syndrome. For more years than many of
you have been alive, I have heard my wife asking children, “Can you tend to
your own business? Can you take care of yourself?”
And you
think that that stuff stays at school?
Really. How many times have I
been told to tend to my own business or ask if I can fix myself?
I was running
out of time to study for my online midterm exam, so I decided it was time to
worry. Just like that, it was 2020 and they
days never seem to end. I had all the
time I ever wanted and now you know why 2020 is such a mess.
I needed to
go to Walmart and didn’t have anything to wear so I decided to worry. My worry must have caused a tremor because my
pajamas that I hadn’t seen in 20 years fell out of the top shelf of my closet. I was good to go.
Do you know
why you have never heard these stories before?
It’s because they never happened.
Worry can take away but it never gives.
Worry can be
debilitating but never empowering. Worry
has nothing good to say on its own resume. It has nothing to offer, yet people
worry all the time.
Why? It comes down to trust and courage.
Jesus would
use the phrase, O ye of little faith.
Will we not
trust God? Do we not have the courage to
trust in the very One who made us, died for our sins, and rose from the dead to
give us hope and a future with him?
Is our faith
so weak? Do we trust so little?
Earnest
Hemmingway in A Farewell to Arms wrote that a coward dies a thousand
deaths, the brave but one. He was
likely inspired by Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in which we read: The
valiant never taste of death but once.
You get the
meaning. Worry can only debilitate. Quit living out every worst-case scenario in
your minds.
We
will have trouble in the world but we are told to take heart for Jesus has
overcome the world. We, like Joshua, are
to be strong
and courageous.
The Lord,
our God, is with us wherever we go. Quit
living in fear. Quit living lives full
of worry. Why? It doesn’t do any good.
Consider the
lilies of the field. If God invests so
much in their splendor, how much more has he invested in you? Jesus will come back to this topic and use
the analogy of sparrows, but that’s in chapter
10.
Several of
us here have gone through the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, many more
than once. There is one quote that
probably was not unique to Warren, but his book was where I first took it to
heart.
He noted: If you can worry, you can pray.
So, if you
find yourself about to launch yourself into a course of worry, pray
instead. Don’t worry. Pray.
I believe
that Jesus would approve of this course of action, but he gave us another verb
to govern us. What verb?
Seek.
Jesus had
been talking about the things that the pagans sought after in their lives. For those who longed for God’s ways and
blessings and protections, he offered these words.
But seek
first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to
you as well.
Seek first,
desire first, long for first the things of God and those things that the godless
world has made into their gods will be given to us.
Don’t let
the things the world holds in high esteem become your god. You know the one true God. He is a jealous God. Have no other gods beside him or before him
or in the way or your relationship with him.
Jesus wraps
up what we label as chapter 6 with these words.
Therefore
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has
enough trouble of its own.
If we start
to worry, then pray.
If we think
we are about to worry, then change our focus to the things of God. Seek him, his kingdom, and his righteousness.
Leave worry
to tend to its own business. Tend to
your own business worry. I’m praying and
seeking.
Worry: Tend
to your own business!
Amen.
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