Why Worry?

It’s been said that the command ‘Do not worry’ or ‘Do not be afraid’, is the most often repeated, and least obeyed, commandment in the Bible. I rather hope we all know that simply saying ‘Don’t worry’ is the most pointless, least helpful, thing to say to someone burdened with anxiety. So why does Jesus keep saying it?

Perhaps one reason is because Jesus recognises what a very common human condition it is. He knows we suffer so much anxiety – for ourselves, for those we love, and for our world – that we desperately need both reassurance, and a fresh perspective.

‘Look at the birds of the air’, he says and the ‘lilies of the field’, which don’t sow or reap, toil or spin – or worry – yet ‘your heavenly father feeds them,….clothes them’. The birds and lilies are completely able to be themselves; they live entirely in the present and there is immense freedom in that. So Jesus calls us to look at the sky-soaring birds and lily’s calm beauty and to learn from them. Certainly when we do step aside from our daily concerns to do so, don’t we often find our mood lifts and our mind calms a little?

Of course however, as thinking beings with responsibilities, we will always struggle to remain so free, but again Jesus understands this, urging us not to worry about tomorrow because ‘Today’s trouble is enough for today’. We need to respond to today’s demands, not waste our energies on ‘what ifs?’ When we worry, it’s been said, we are carrying tomorrow’s burden with today’s strength. We pray ‘Our Father … give us this day our daily bread’ – give us what we need to get through today, and then tomorrow we can ask for, and receive, the strength we need for tomorrow.

In the midst of all his urging that we don’t worry, Jesus also says; ‘strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well.’ Worry turns us in on ourselves, while Jesus wants to turn us inside out. He calls us to begin each day not gazing inward to a muddle of fears, but turning our gaze out at our world and saying; ‘What can I do for God today?’ How can I build God’s kingdom of love and justice? In even the tiniest ways, how can I serve God’s people, letting them experience that they, like me, are deeply cared for and treasured, today and tomorrow, by our endlessly faithful and loving Father God.

Revd Kate McFarlane