Worry

I’m going to pick apart Matthew 25-35 over the next few days because I’ve read it a million times, and yet I don’t feel comforted by it.  Even though I know worrying doesn’t add a minute to my life, I still worry.

We say things to our kids like “Be careful” when they leave in their car after dark, as we worry they might not make it back home.  We hang up from the one we love with an “I love you” in a tone that begs them to come home safely from work in the early evening.  And we sit down to pay the bills and sigh, wondering if we’ll have “enough” for the clothes our kids now need, because they’ve outgrown the old ones.  It seems to be part of our DNA to worry, yet we’re instructed not to do it.

The first part of the passage asks a question, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”  Why did Jesus ask that question? 

Food is something external that we eat to stay alive physically, and clothes are the things we wear to cover our shame of being naked.  So is Jesus saying there’s more at stake, more to think about, and more to fill our minds with other than our next meal and the latest fashion?

I think he’s warning us of the trap of literally working to eat and be clothed.  He’s stating there’s a life to be lived that transcends those daily tasks of feeding and clothing our bodies.  And that is “life” with Him.

So maybe our focus is always horizontal when it should be turned upwards.  And I’m thinking it takes training and hard work to switch that focus.  It’s like trying to turn on an outside faucet that’s been stuck in one direction for way too long.  But when it’s finally loose – watch out – the water comes pouring out.