Reading 8
Do not worry
The reading
Matthew 6:25-34
Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they? Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?
Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?
Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.
The companions
Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the LORD’s house forever.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
The note
This gets read as comfort. It is closer to an audit. The central question is a measurement question: which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?
Not, is worry unpleasant. Does it return anything.
The birds and the lilies are not decoration either. They are evidence in an argument about proportion. If the small cases are provisioned, the larger case is not the weaker one.
Then the last line, which people skip. Each day’s own evil is sufficient. He does not say tomorrow will be fine. He says tomorrow has its own trouble and it is not yours to carry today.
That is rationing, not reassurance.
Most anxiety is simulation. You run tomorrow again and again at full cost and nothing comes back. He is not telling you to feel calm about it. He is telling you the process does not terminate.
This week
Keep one note this week, on paper or in one file. Every time you catch yourself running a future problem, write it down in a line. At the end of the week, mark each one: it happened, it resolved itself, or it is still running. Most people find the third column is by far the longest.
The point is not to stop worrying by an act of will. It is to see in your own handwriting what the process actually returns.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” in the companions.
This page is made for paper too: print it and the reading prints clean, ready for the table.