Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow’s troubles. –E. Stanley Jones 1
“I did not realize how tightly I was wound,” I said. It had been several months since we had seen our friends. In the course of catching up, I mentioned the downturn in business, which led to staffing cuts. My position was affected although I fully expected to be at work again within a couple of weeks.
The first two weeks passed quickly, and I rested a lot. By week three, I started to get anxious as my HR background played in my head. Onboarding a new hire can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months – depending on the efficiency of the company. Now the fourth week had passed, and we were catching up again with our friends.
They, too, had sustained a recent loss but of a different kind. Winter weather had left the narrow winding road near their house treacherous, and a slippery slope landed them up close and personal with a sizable tree. Fortunately, their bodies were not injured, but their truck was.
Far more often than we likely prefer, life presents us with challenges and slippery slopes. Yet as we remember and rely on the words Jesus spoke, we can find hope and peace:
Therefore I tell you, do no worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 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. Matthew 6:25-34 niv
In time, our friends were driving their truck along familiar roads again. And in time, I began to relax, unwinding to connect to my Creator. In his timing, I will return to gainful employment. Yet I am learning each day to take worry out of the wait as I remember the truth of God’s Word and wise words he has inspired:
“One day I read something that impressed me so profoundly that I have worried little since then. It said: ‘A man of God in the will of God is immortal until his work on earth is done.’” 2
So let us avoid the slippery slope of worry and …
Live for what tomorrow can bring, not what yesterday has taken away. 3
1 Harper, Sheila. May I have this dance. 2005. / 2 David Jeremiah / The Handwriting on the Wall / 3 Smith, Cindy L. Whispered Truth. 2019
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