
25 “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? 27 Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. 29 But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. 30 If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? 31 Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ 32 Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Reflection
This lengthy message is attributed to Jesus as he preaches to crowds of peasants within the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 6:24 announces “You cannot serve God and wealth” setting the stage for today’s meditation on “Let go and Let God.” Who among us hasn’t spent too much energy worrying about things we cannot control? Certainly the peasants of Jesus’ time were living hand to mouth and often didn’t know where their next meal was coming from and they would be comforted by his assurance to not worry about their lives, what they would eat or wear.
As I listened to Pastor Joe’s sermon on Sunday about being overwhelmed by a desire to control, I immediately thought of the phrase “Let Go and Let God.” Sure enough, he said that phrase a few moments later in his message. He conjured up an image for me as a young adult. My favorite uncle wore a lapel pin every day after his wife, my favorite aunt, had died suddenly. Both that aunt and that uncle were like second parents to me, and their son like a second brother. As part of a large, close-knit Italian family, her death was deeply felt by our entire, extended family. I could not understand how my uncle was able to laugh, or even smile, and yet he did. He provided the earliest memory I have of how to release things I couldn’t control. The death of my aunt was as difficult for me as losing one of my actual parents.
Later, when I was a seminary student raising three young children and working as the Christian Ed director at my church, I used to feel overwhelmed at least once a week. I would walk into my mentor’s office and fall emotionally apart, wondering and worrying about how I would juggle all that I needed to get done. My mentor would use shorthand and say “remember the lilies in the field?” And then he would quote Matthew 6:28 “Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work… Stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.” He did not just quote scripture but he guided me in planning and I became a great list-maker!
My lists are much shorter today than they used to be and life doesn’t have as nearly as many demands on my time. Lately we have started planning to do some updating of our condo, so those ideas have begun to occupy my lists. Having a dog who wants attention is a great help in keeping me on a schedule. Planning the dinner menu is my focus most days and I have developed a real love for cooking, which I didn’t have time for prior to retirement. My greatest joy each day is going for a long walk and giving thanks for my life. I haven’t stopped worrying but I have improved coping skills.
by Kathleen Stolz
For Pondering and Prayer
Do you remember the song “Don’t Worry. Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin?
Or “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley?
The past few weeks I have found myself humming those songs, or something like them,
whenever I feel overwhelmed. I have been humming them a LOT! This scripture passage always reminds me that life goes on: “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life…. Desire first and foremost God’s kingdom (aka kin-dom) and God’s righteousness (aka justice), and all these things will be given to you.”
I encourage you to find some songs that put a smile on your face and start singing or humming. Walking and listening to uplifting music is my “let go and let God” reminder every day. What is your antidote for worries?
Prayer: O Great Comforting God, We are worried. We are afraid. Some days we feel totally out of control when we listen to the news. Like you, we desire your kin-dom and your justice to come. You call on us to join you in the work. All around us we see elected and self-appointed leaders abusing their functions within government and non-governmental business structures. Give us the strength, the courage, the voice and the creativity to be part of the solution so that “Thy will be done”. Amen.