On this Thanksgiving morning, I want us to reflect upon Jesus’ words about worry as they relate to how we live in a world that struggles to know to handle worry and anxiety even in the midst of the great abundance we enjoy as Canadians.
I have known very few people who live without worrying about something or someone. I unfortunately am not one of those individuals.
Sometimes our worry arises out of our concern for others in a particular situation. And sometimes we worry about things and situation, which we feel we have no control over.
Whatever the reason, I believe that no matter how young or how old we are, most of us worry about something. Worry and anxiety have no age limits and there is no generation gap when it comes to being stressed out.
We are bound together both young and old, male and female, working class and retired class by this common human condition of worrying about the future.
Into this common relatable human condition comes a word of hope from God and some helpful advice for dealing with this common enemy of worry.
On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses this issue of worry with his disciples who have the same concerns as many of us do today. Jesus said, (Mt 6:25)
“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?
The disciples who left their well-paying occupations to follow Jesus are obviously worried about God meeting their basic needs as they follow Jesus. Jesus addresses their worry by pointing them to how God wants to meet their need. Jesus tells them they are of more value than the birds and flowers of the field.
In the context of following him, Jesus asked a very simple question:
Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
Do you know of anyone who has been able to add any extra time to their life by worrying about what they are going to eat, drink, or wear?
Do you know of anyone whose goal in life is to worry more? The obvious answer is no. Anxiety and worry can cause high blood pressure, grumpiness, headaches, just to name a few.
Jesus challenges the disciples not to dwell on the problem or the cause of their worry, but to dwell on God’s loving concern for them.
This is why when Paul deals with the issue of worry and anxiety in his letter to the Philippians, he tells them to first to…
Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice.
Rejoicing and praising God is an act of focusing on who God is. When we confess to God, as we commonly do in our opening prayer, “YOU ARE GOD, AND WE ARE NOT” we are confessing that God is bigger than we are and bigger than any situation that confronts us. In essence, we tell God that he can be trusted. On the other hand, when we are worrying we confess that we do not trust in God at that moment.
A friend of mine told me the story of how as a child one of the biggest sources of anxiety for him was going on trips with his parents. He would become so overwhelmed with worry that his parents didn’t have a clue as to how to get to their destination, that he would become physically ill.
My friend’s parents became concerned about him and resolved the issue by having my friend lay face down in the back seat for the majority of the trip. My friend said he was happy because he couldn’t see outside and thus his stomach was more at ease.
He told me that his worry became a real stumbling block because of his inability to trust his parents to get them to the right place.
Once my friend learned to trust his parents to get him from point A to point B he was fine. He said it took him a lot time of lying face down in the back seat to get to that point where he could trust his parents and stop worrying.
I believe we spend our entire Christian lives learning to trust God to get us to where we need to go. And sometimes that process of learning to trust God means closing our eyes and keeping silent in order for God to direct us.
One study showed that the average North American spend 92% of their time worrying about things that will never happen, can’t be changed, that is untrue, or things that negatively affect our health by worrying.
When we worry, our focus is on the problem and obviously not on God nor his priorities for us as Jesus directs. Jesus told his disciples
Eugene Peterson in his modern translation of the New Testament called “The Message” translates the Matthew 6:34 like this…
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
The Apostle Paul added to this teaching of Jesus by telling the church at Philippi …
“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Again, I find Eugene Peterson’s modern translation of that text helpful for Peterson translating it as…
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.”
This enables us to move closer to God. By including words of thanksgiving with our prayers, we humbly acknowledge that we are trusting God to bring about a positive change in the situation or to our attitude about the situation, which is causing us to worry. The act of prayer is an act of faith and also an act sharing each other’s burdens.
Sometimes we just need a fresh perspective on our worry.
One Summer a father and son had a conversation when his son turned four. That spring the son asked for a spot in the family garden to call his own. He turned the soil, broke the clumps, and planted his favorite vegetable–corn.
Toward the middle of July, the son was concerned that his corn was not growing fast enough. The father tried to reassure his son that the corn was doing just fine by quoting him the familiar benchmark used by farmers,
“…knee high by the fourth of July.”
Upon hearing his father’s wisdom, his son asked the theological question: “My knees or yours Dad?”
While the son saw disaster with his first crop of corn, the father from his experience over many years of growing corn, saw the potential of a plentiful harvest that would come later that summer.
This story illustrates what the Apostle Paul also shared with the church at Philippi about focusing our attention off of what is worrying us and onto to what God is doing and revealing to us each day.
Hear Paul’s words in verse 8 as translated by Eugene Peterson…
“Summing it up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful and not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.
Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent plans.
To keep from falling back into the negative habit and practice of worrying, Paul believes that we need to change the way we think about God and the situation that we are worried about. There won’t be any change in the way feel about the situation until we take positive steps every day to refocus our minds on the things of God. I believe Paul is speaking out of a great deal of experience where worry and anxiety weighed heavily upon him.
For us this means every time we find ourselves being anxious or worrying about anything. We stop. We thank God for his presence in our lives, in the situation or people we are concerned about and we pray for them.
I confess that thanking God for some situations has been incredibly difficult to do this year. I have learned to more freely and honestly confess my struggle to God to thank God for all situations and circumstances.
But the simple practice and habit of turning our worries into prayers with thanksgiving to God is incredibly helpful and healthy for us as Paul declares it to be. Any positive changes come bit by bit, choice by choice to move from worry to trust in God.
If we are worried about a relationship, then we need to focus on what God says about reconciliation, forgiveness, and loving others. And follow them a little bit each day until they become a natural way we live.
If our worry is about the future, then we learn to trust God for today and submit to his ways in order to experience the peace and wholeness that come in seeking first God and God’s Kingdom priorities for us.
Christians author Corrie Ten Boom, whose family risked their lives to help Jews escape the Nazi’s in World War 2, once said…
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrows;
it empties today of strength.”
Her observation rings true for me as I suspect it does for you. Worry and anxiety always rob us of our ability to trust God and to follow God’s kingdom priorities that Jesus lovingly teaches us again and again.
God promises that when we turn our worries over to Him and trust him to deal with our concerns, He will give us the peace that passes all understanding. And this peace puts us in the right place to join with God in lifting the burdens of others as well and focusing on God’s Kingdom priorities for us individually and as His church.
Today, we give thanks for all of God’s gifts and blessings to us, which help us to daily trust Him and live by his Kingdom priorities to His Glory, Honor and Praise.
Amen!