“Therefore I tell you, do not 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 sew 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?” Matthew 6:25-27
In listening recently to an interview of Irish poet, Michael Longley, I learned a new word: insouciance. It means a calm, relaxed state; a feeling of not worrying about anything.
I think we can only achieve that state by trusting in God, by recognizing that we are not God, we are not in charge of the universe, and that God is good. He is with us, and He desires to give us refuge, to care for us, and to give us good gifts. If we live by fully accepting those things, that is, if we live by faith, then we can be insouciant.
Modernity has led us away from insouciance. The more we have come to understand and gain control of our world and our lives, the more we take control and shoulder responsibility for our lives’ outcome. Though God wants us to take responsibility for ourselves and live life according to His moral law, there is much beyond our control, which He wants us to leave to Him, to trust that He will provide.
Matthew 6:25-34 is Jesus’ teaching about not worrying. He tells us that we are more valuable to God than the birds of the air and that God will take care of us just as he sees to the needs of all the birds. We cannot add a single hour to our life by worrying. Worrying achieves nothing, but signifies a lack of faith in God and His love and care for you. Not only does worrying not do any good, it hurts us. Worrying and stress eat us up inside and causes a host of unhealthy conditions in our bodies.
We can find rest in God. Jesus tells us to give Him our burdens. What a wonderful God! He wants to help us, to make our lives a tribute of faith in Him rather than a teetering tower of decisions and actions that require constant vigilance and rebalancing, lest it topple and destroy everything we have built.
Isn’t it time for you to give your worries over to the One who cares for you and actually has the power to change you and your life’s situations?
In His strength,
Doug