Letting Go of Worry - September 27
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 89:1-18; PM Psalm 89:19-52; 2 Kings 17:24-41; 1 Cor. 7:25-31; Matt. 6:25-34
In the last few years, I have found cycling to be enjoyable and a wonderful outlet for exercise, focus, and friendship. Being outside in our beautiful city, or really just outside, in the rolling hills and foothills of Appalachia, I’ve fallen in love with our natural setting here in Birmingham. One of the aspects of cycling that is most intriguing is the ability to totally get crushed by people thirty years my senior. Even at 40 years old, I am awestruck at the ability for people well into their seventies to maintain such high levels of fitness, finding myself often struggling to keep up with people who in most other endurance sports wouldn’t stand a chance of being at the same physical level due to nothing more than physiology.
As I learn more about the sport, I am amazed by the time that people put in every week. Some people ride a few hours a day. It’s an amazing feat. It’s not a surprise to come across someone who purely does this to gain years on their life. You can imagine someone saying, “Oh I ride twenty hours a week so that I’ll live ten years longer.” This certainly might be true, but the irony of the statement is, the person is spending that time on a bicycle! If the sole purpose of the activity is to gain time to spend with family or friends, then the gain is lost on the activity and the person is totally unaware. It has no benefit! There must be other reasons for riding, such as health, friendship, and general enjoyment of the sport for the activity to make sense. When diving into anything that requires a significant amount of time, we should ask ourselves, “What is the purpose of our investment of time, talent, and treasure?” “What are we hoping to accomplish?”
I wonder if a similar principle can be applied to worry. I’ve experienced several times in my life wear a healthy dose of skepticism and worry has helped motivate or shape an outcome to be positive. I’ve also experienced moments where I spent so much time worrying over things that were outside of my control, or worse, where I have spent so much time consumed by worry, for more than even the worse outcome coming to life.
Jesus’s words of compassion around worry are meant to help give us perspective. “Therefore I tell you, 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 your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? vv. (6:25-26)” Even two thousand years later, we are still worrying about the same things!
Perspective seems to be the answer. Jesus reminds those gathered on the mountain that even the lilies of the field continue to grow because God has planted them as well. We worry a lot these days. Today, I wonder just how necessary that worry really is. Sometimes it might be a healthy motivator and at other times a complete waste of time that even inhibits our own growth and wellbeing. How different would it be if you were to see our own lives as where God has planted us, and to believe that “if God so clothes the grass of the field… will he not much more clothe (us)- of little faith (v. 30).”
Faithfully,
John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: How often do you reflect on the motivations of where you spend your time? What three areas or activities outside of work do you spend most of your time on? What are the values underneath those activities that you are trying to draw out?
Daily Challenge: If you need help worrying less, read these seven simple practices.