But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Matthew [6:33]-34 (NRSV)

Worry is serious business. It creates stress, affects your health, and generally makes life less tolerable.

Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow. Trust in God and let life come to us. That’s hard to do. In this text, the word worry can also be translated as “anxiety.” The literal meaning is to be pulled apart or drawn in opposite directions. The image is one where your mind is in two places, today and a future that you fear.

Author Seth Godin describes anxiety as experiencing failure in advance. When you’re worried, when you’re anxious, you are experiencing all the feelings of something bad that has not yet happened. One study showed that 85% of the things we worry about never happen. And of the other 15%, four of five people said they either handled it or it taught them a valuable lesson.

What are you worried about? Your money, health, job, family, weight? Something else?

Jesus asks in MT [6:27], “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” In fact, it’s more likely that worry and anxiety will reduce our lifespan.

We are living in an age of anxiety.

This was true before COVID-19, but the pandemic has intensified our individual and collective anxiety.

The church has not escaped. If anything, it is worse. We worry about attendance, about money and about relevance. In my denomination the anxiety is compounded by an expected schism.

In his book, A Failure of Nerve, Edwin Friedman says that in a chronically anxious society we choose safety over adventure, and that is the beginning of our decline.

Jesus tells us that worry is a sign of little faith (MT [6:30]).

Faith and anxiety are opposites. So what do we do?

Seek first the kingdom of God. Do this and God will take care of the rest.

The word for “seek” in this passage was also used to describe the activity of a hunter who hides in a blind. There is an alertness, an expectation that something will appear.

Seeking God’s activity in the world is similar. It not only makes us more aware of God’s presence, it puts us in tune with God’s desire for a more just and equitable society. It moves us from an internally focused life of anxiety and fear toward an externally focused expectation that God is working in the world. For me, this makes it more likely that I’ll choose adventure over safety.

After all, if God is involved, then what do we have to fear?

Questions for Reflection:

What makes you anxious? How can faith help you manage it?

What would it mean to expect God to work in you, through you and around you?

What would it mean to choose adventure over safety in your life?