Are you worried?

When in doubt, choose patience and kindness

Jesus made a habit of asking too much of us. He never shied away from setting the bar high.

When the Lord went to the trouble of living among us, he was fond of hard sayings. I even have a book called “The Hard Sayings of Jesus.” Not the least of these hard sayings was, “Do not worry.”

As if “Love God, love your neighbor” was not enough to keep us busy for an entire lifetime, Jesus added to the mix a teaching in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount that invites us to step into a life of brave faith. In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus said in more than one way, “Do not worry.”

My wife, Jennifer, a licensed professional counselor, will be the first to tell you that when you tell people not to worry, their immediate inclination will be to worry. Moreover, how can we survey such a volatile world and say, “Do not worry,” with a straight face?

We are in a time of great uncertainty. The only comfort in saying such a thing is that if you study history, it’s always been this way. The past is filled with stories of doubt about what will happen next.

The exception to observing that “it’s always been this way” is that it has never been specifically today before today. Every time we hear Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6, it gains a new hearing, because there has never been a today quite like the one today.

Do not worry? That is easy to say when yesterday is gone. But for today? Well, let’s be realistic. Today is another thing altogether.

In the middle of his teaching about worry, Jesus challenges us to live lives of faith. What if we took seriously the commitment to trust God over embracing the worry that all-too-easily becomes the lowest common denominator of our impulses?

What if we devoted our lives to the gifts of God? What if we devoted our hours to cultivating God’s love best displayed in actions of patience and kindness? Few would argue that our day-to- day existence could use a little more patience and kindness.

I read a Chinese proverb recently that has been haunting me: “If you are patient in a moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.”

I wonder if the same could be said of worry?

Is it realistic to commit to choose patience and kindness in moments of worry? Such teachings of Jesus, while hard, are nonetheless worthwhile.