Tough times. And more to come we fear with the increasing price of food, oil, gas and everything dependent on petroleum (which is almost everything). We hear reports now of people having to make choices between gas and food or medicine.
For most of us, the consequences are less dramatic but raise a level of anxiety in us. What’s it going to cost to heat my house next winter? Should I fill my oil tank now or wait, hoping the price will go down. Should I go to the expense of an energy audit, re-weatherize my house, trade in my beloved gas guzzling truck/van SUV for a more fuel efficient car? And so on.
As Christians, how do we respond to the concerns and anxiety of these times? I think there are two helpful responses, the second contingent on the first. The first is to hear deeply and again Jesus’ words in Matthew 6: “do not worry about your life... indeed your heavenly father knows that you need all these things…So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
I don’t think that means we don’t plan for the future as best we can but we do not live in the future through worry. Rather we take care of what we need to today and trust that we will be taken care of. Indeed, “Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
And then having taken that admonition and promise to heart, we move to a second very important part of this passage, “…strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
There are several meanings to the phrase “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” But surely one of them is the righteousness of striving to meet the need of those in need—those for whom hard times go well beyond anxiety and worry about the future. What if we took a gigantic leap of faith and put our primary efforts into feeding the hungry in our community and around the world? What if we put every dollar we could spare (and perhaps even beyond what we thought we could spare) into those pew envelopes marked “ELCA World Hunger Relief” and extra groceries for the food bank? What if we gave generously to every relief effort we became aware of? What if indeed we took the passage about “striving first for the kingdom of God” as much to heart as “do not worry about your life?
That would indeed be the kind of leap into faith that to which Jesus calls us, freeing us from anxiety and letting today’s troubles be enough for today.
Peace to your heart,
