What, me worry?!
“Don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow. Live one day at a time.” Matthew 6:34
Today’s Gospel reading in mass was Matthew 6:24-34, which basically instructs us not to worry about tomorrow or earthly things. In other words, just chill.
I am not good at doing that. I am very nostalgic so I hold on to memories from yesterday, last month, years past. I can also hold on way too tightly to past hurts and feelings of resentment. I can be slow to forgive and quick to shut down. On the flipside, I’m also a major planner of tomorrow and all the tomorrows that follow. I don’t like to just “let things happen.” I’ve always joked that, other than perhaps writing, the other thing I’m really good at is worrying. Hi, my name is Carla and I’m a worry wart. I worry about everything. I even worry about how much I worry.
I’m also not big on the whole “let go and let God” thing. Yes, I totally believe our lives are in God’s hands and that we are to release them to Him, but I also strongly believe we are to be the hands of God and do His work. Waiting for Him to take care of everything is a bit too “la la living” to me. God helps those who help themselves, right?
So, when I hear the likes of “let it go” or “live in the moment,” I have a hard time doing so. Alcoholics Anonymous is as famous for its “one day at a time” mantra as it is for its use of the Serenity Prayer but that is so hard for me to do. How can I just focus on today when so much happened last Thursday and next Tuesday is going to be crazy?!
This morning Deacon Pete had the answer as he read and spoke about not worrying about so much and instead live today as if it were your last. Make it memorable. You don’t have to forget about yesterday or tomorrow, but take the time to enjoy today. Do something special. Do nothing. Do what makes you happy and whole.
Oh, okay, I get it now! I can continue to plan next week while still living for today. Yippee and Amen!
But what about not worrying about my clothes and what to wear? Okay, I’m still working on that one!
“Lord, help me to realize how brief my time on earth will be. My whole lifetime is but a moment to you and all my busy rushing ends in nothing.” Ps. 39
Matthew 6:24-34
No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?
Can any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life?
And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these.
Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you who have so little faith?
So do not worry; do not say, “What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear?”
It is the Gentiles who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.
Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God’s saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well.
So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself.
Beyond Words 