"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
~Matthew 6:34
This verse was the topic of a sermon I heard last weekend. It might be one of the verses I most need to absorb. Worrying about tomorrow really does very little good. This doesn't mean you shouldn't plan for the future, but being anxious about it is not productive, and can very often be destructive. If we are continually worried about what is to come, we miss what is now. And it's not like worrying about the future is going to fix anything. I guess it's one of those things I know, but don't believe. But I'm working on it.
For those who are interested in the more "religious" perspective on this verse, the minister also mentioned that being anxious about the future is actually more than simply counterproductive - it's actually a sin. I'm not sure I'd ever thought about it in quite this way before. His point was that, if we are worried about tomorrow, we are not trusting God. If we do trust God, we will no longer be concerned about the future, because we know that God has a plan for us. After all, we are not in control, and we certainly cannot control what will happen tomorrow. We can perhaps change course, but we cannot control the wind. And changing course is not some undefined action in the future anyway. It's an action in the present.
2 comments:
Hmm. I think though that it seems to me that you would have to have some amount of "worry" about the proverbial (or literal) tomorrow in order to consider it enough to *take* action to change course in the present. After all, what is it that we think of and analyze the most? The things we worry about of course! Now, I'm not saying that this is always productive because of course I for one am very good at worrying about things that I absolutely have no control over (course or otherwise), but I do think it's worth considering that a little anxiety is necessary in order to jump start our minds into critically thinking about and considering future paths, prospects, courses of action, etc. I see the point, but I don't think I would call it sinful if you were to worry and that worry gave rise to fruitful consideration of whatever the issue at hand is. Perhaps this is not called "worry" though... perhaps it lies somewhere else on the spectrum.
I wonder if what you are talking about is closer to planning than worrying. Planning is a constructive approach to the future, whereas worrying is simply anxious brooding. Sometimes we can almost find ourselves reveling in our worries. It's almost as if we are romanticizing our anxiety. But we aren't trusting God if we do that, and we aren't being constructive. Not that planning is everything either, though. At a deep level, you just have to let go and trust. You could plan everything out to a "T", and some unforeseen element could blow it all apart.
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