“Worry doesn’t repair anything,” my wise Belizean friend pictured here told me as he was chilling at the roundabout downtown. No wiser words were ever spoken. And of course it brings to mind the wisdom of Jesus in a scripture from Matthew you’ll find below.
From the Gospel of Matthew 6: 25-34, concerning the futility of worry and anxiety as opposed to peace in the present moment–the holiness of the here and now–where God keeps us embraced like a warm blanket on a cold, dark night:
“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?
“And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
“But 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?”
“For 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.
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,*
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God. — from Psalm 42
As always, wise words, Reverend.