July 19, 2022

The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker

“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? Look 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? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” (Matthew 6:25-27)

I feel personally attacked by Jesus in these verses. I always have. From my earliest memory I can recall thinking, “Boy, wouldn’t it be nice to not worry!” Of course, I could never make it happen. Like trying not to think of a pink elephant when someone says “don’t think of a pink elephant,” trying not to worry by telling yourself not to worry is nearly impossible. It is even worse when someone else tells you not to worry. If you have ever struggled with anxiety or panic attacks, you know what it feels like when a well-meaning person tells you, simply, not to worry.

So what are we to make of this injunction from Jesus? Unlike that well-meaning person, Jesus is speaking a deeper truth here. He is not simply telling us to get over our worry. He is reminding us of the way the world actually works. Worry and anxiety take us out of the present moment and into a world that does not exist. When we worry, we put our feet on the shaky ground of a future (or past) constructed in our own mind. Jesus reminds us, through the image of birds, that we did not make the world, and we do not sustain it. We did not cause ourselves to take our first breath, and we cannot add a single hour to our lives by worrying.

This truth is humbling. Instead of holding on tighter and trying to white-knuckle our way out of anxiety (“Jesus said not to worry, Jesus said not to worry, Jesus said not to worry”), we can open our hands and hold on loosely. Our heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air. Are we not of more value than they? Jesus speaks directly into our hearts: You are of infinite value, and my grace is enough.

[Connor Gwin, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]