What Is the Alternative to Worry?

We are in the midst of a gigantic pandemic, a nation politically and racially divided, entering the Christmas season, and looking forward to an uncertain future as a nation — a people united.

And we read:

²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

Very early yesterday morning I was thinking about what Jesus said/says about our need to worry.

Worry is a useless process that all of us do — all of us.  It is sort of one of those natural mental devise we use to figure out something.

Mostly worry, being anxious, is concerned with control — needing to take charge in order for the issues to be solved (our way).

So right smack in the middle of Jesus well-know teachings, called The Beatitudes,  we fine this treasure of advice:

25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.(Matt. 6)

Jesus is wisely advising us to give up our compulsion to try to fix life with our mental gymnastics.

Basically he is saying stop strangling yourself.  Stop tormenting you self.  Stop tying yourself in knots.

Trust in God to provide.

And the people say: “Right.”

          Easier said than done.

What I was wondering yesterday, in my warm bed, was does it really help to tell someone not to worry?

Does knowing you are strangling yourself, when you worry, really matter at the moment?

Does it truly make a difference that worry is so damaging to our sense of peace?

Can you think of an alternative?