How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR Matthew 6:33–34 NIV But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. CONSIDER What would you say is the most common question we ask and are asked in life? I'd put my money on this question: "So, how are you doing?" Now, what would you say is the most common answer given in response to this most common question? And, of course, we all know the answer. "Fine."  Actually, the answer is either "Fine," or "How much time you got?"   I once heard the word fine is an acronym: F.I.N.E. It stands for Frustrated. Insecure. Nervous. (and) Exhausted. It's true, isn't it? Fine is a cover word we use to paper over the thin veneer of what's really going on under the surface. Now hold that thought.  There is a keyword appearing right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, no less than six times in this sixth chapter of Matthew. Did you notice it? The word describes an insanely powerful and painful reality plaguing every person who has ever lived. Let's see if you can spot the word: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? . . . “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. . . . So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ . . . Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. The word is "worry."  Remember, this is Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, talking here. It is the most significant teaching in the history of the world. He is interpreting key biblical texts, articulating deep theology, upending long-established religious conventions, teaching on prayer and fasting, and giving and otherwise imparting divine wisdom for the ages. But the most repeated word in the message is "worry."  Why? How about because he knows us. He knows we are doing "F.I.N.E."  I remember seeing a book on my parents' bookshelf when I was a kid. The title captivated me: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. Would you believe me if I told you I read it as a young teenager? Multiply the anxiety I was dealing with in 1981 times a hundred, put it on the internet, and compress it into an electronic device that fits in one's pocket, and you have today's teenager. Three times, Jesus explicitly commands: "Do not worry." But how? We all know the minute we try to stop worrying, we begin to worry about worrying. How, Jesus? He displaces our worry with a way forward—a singular, simple priority.   But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. He crushes the myth of the American mentality—that we can have multiple priorities and somehow rank them. Instead, he invites us to have only one priority and to seek it in every iota of life—the kingdom of God. It makes sense, doesn't it? Only one thing can be first—the King and his kingdom.  Now enjoy this sneak preview of a future Gospel episode: “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41–42) PRAY Abba Father, thank you for inviting us to speak to you like Jesus speaks to you—as sons and daughters. It is comforting even to draw near to you in this endearing way. King Jesus, train us in the priority of your kingdom and what it means to seek it, which is to say to receive it as pure gift in every iota of our everyday lives. We know the awaits us as we sit at your feet. Come, Holy Spirit, and defuse worry in us as you instill us with the priority of the kingdom of heaven—right here on the earth. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.