WHY DO YOU WORRY?

I worry because I’m smart.

Birds don’t worry, Jesus said. God provides for them. Flowers don’t worry. God dresses them. But come on Jesus, birds don’t have the mental capacity to imagine all the bad things that can happen. Flowers don’t have brains at all.

Humans worry because we were created in the image of God. We can remember the past and imagine the future. Birds and flowers live only in the present.

We live in the present as well. But our minds often drift to the past or future. It makes us able to plan and create. But it also makes it easy to imagine the worst. Jesus doesn’t want us to be dumb does he?

No. Jesus is way smarter than us. And he is not advocating being like a bird or a flower. He is telling us to use our powers of imagination to “consider” the flowers and birds and how God cares for them.

Worry is a bad use of a good imagination

At the end of the devastation of the second world war, Winston Churchill said this:

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”

 

Or as Rev. R. J. Campbell said, “Worries are sorrows which don’t happen. No one can escape sorrow, but everyone can escape worry.”

We all have enough sorrows and troubles. Adding imaginary ones doesn’t help us. That’s why Jesus put it simply:

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:34

So the next time you are tempted to worry, step outside and look at birds and flowers and think about your Father and his care for you. It will be a better use of the imagination God gave you.