God Is in Charge

Good Morning All,

On the last Sunday of May, the lectionary gospel reading was Matthew 6: 24-34—a reading that could fall under the heading, “Don’t Worry.” Easier said than done, right? How absurd to think that we humans will not worry…maybe we’re hardwired to worry, who knows. And some of us do a much better job at worrying than others; and you know who you are! :) Which then also means that there are also those who seem to do a much better job at keeping whatever happens in our lives, in perspective. This usually means taking a deep breath or many deep breaths, stepping back a bit to reflect on the cause of our worry and then to remember that it is God who is in charge. And our faith reminds us that we are to fill up whatever is empty with a sense of God’s peace and not our own anxiety.

No matter how fervently you may search throughout the scriptures, you will not find any passages where God promises to fix everything that goes wrong; or that if we are faithful, we will never encounter challenges or defeats or anything bad in our lives. It doesn’t work that way. God doesn’t promise to solve our problems and dilemmas; but God does promise to be with us every step of the way as we make our way to the other side of our troubles.

It is God who gives us the precious gift of perspective: Consider those lilies of the field that Jesus talks about in this reading from Matthew.” Look at the birds of the air. Who of you by worrying have added a single hour to your life or inch to your height?” Or as Eugene Peterson writes in The Message,
“Don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow; so much so that you miss out on today. Don’t get all tied up in knots over the possibilities of what lies ahead.”

Yes, of course, for many good reasons, it is wise and prudent to prepare for the future. But these words from Jesus warn us not let our plans for the future take total control of our lives; or become the driving force or the ultimate goal in our lives. That’s when we run amok. That’s when worry and God’s peace are fighting for space in our hearts. We find ourselves running on empty; losing our way along the path; thinking that providing for the future needs to be done even at the expense of our relationships with our family and friends as well us at the expense of moving toward a fuller relationship with God.

God stands ready to put our worries to rest…to move our worries out of God’s way so that we may be filled and clothed with God’s presence, patience and strength; as we allow God to provide us with all that we need. If God does this for birds and flowers and all of God’s creatures, in all of God’s splendor; then how foolish we are not to believe that God will not custom-tailor our lives as well.…

“Alterations, No Charge”

Last night, I hung up my worries in the closet,
hoping the wrinkles would smooth out by the next day;
I put my fears into the laundry, so they would be clean enough to wear again this week; I made sure that pebble called stress was still in my shoe, where it has worn a hole into the heel.

But this morning, when I opened the closet, I found a whole new outfit, woven out of Easter lilies and resurrection's sweet grass and sandals made out of sparrow's feathers.

Turning, I found you standing there, a tape measure around your neck, chalk in your hand, saying with a smile, 'try them on…so we can see if any alterations are needed.'
(c) 2008 Thom M. Shuman

So, what will it be…"off the rack" or custom-made?

Blessings, Joanne