“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. 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 which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious 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 arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.
Matthew 6: 25-34
Every person who is alive will deal with anxiety and stress on some level. Some levels of these things are so acute that they require therapy and medication. This is not the kind of anxiety we will be discussing today. Even the most mature, well grounded, focused person will deal with some level of anxiety and stress at times. In fact, most of us deal with this to a degree every day. In dealing with this challenge, it is important that we build things into our daily lives that are anxiety and stress reducing. Prayer is one such thing. While we may struggle to find time to pray, there isn’t one time I’ve prayed that my anxiety hasn’t gone down. Prayer has a calming effect on people. Scripture reading shouldn’t increase anxiety, but passages that are hard to understand may be a little stressful. One of the reasons to read the entire Bible, however, is because there are soothing passages throughout the Bible, and passages that will speak to a specific person more than others. Some of my favorite stress reducing passages include Psalm 23, Philippians 4, and Matthew 6:25-34, which is today’s Scripture passage.
Jesus asks us in this passage to consider the lilies of the field, and even the grass. When we look at these things and see their intrinsic beauty and simplicity, He tells us to realize that we are so much greater than these things that have such a short lifespan, and can quickly be cut down and destroyed. If God made these part of His creation so beautiful, think about how much more beautiful He made us.
There are so many things in the Bible that point us to being present with what is going on right in front of us, right now. The last verse of today’s Scripture passage says “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” (Matthew 6:34) And in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” in other words, give us what we need today, that will get us through today.
Some of the things that cause us anxiety are the totality of what is on our “to do list.” The list becomes so overwhelming, we become anxious looking at it, we don’t know where to start, and we sit, almost paralyzed as we contemplate how it’s all going to get done. The better course of action is to take an item from the list and just do it. Don’t focus on all the items, or the anxiety that their totality is causing. We can generally only focus on one thing at a time, so focus on one thing and do it well.
One of the greatest challenges of my ministry is focusing during a weekday Divine Liturgy. Weekday Divine Liturgies are not held on a set schedule, i.e., we don’t celebrate Liturgy every Tuesday. We celebrate according to a calendar which indicates dates that are to be marked with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. Some weeks, we have none, and other weeks we have two or three. The other responsibilities of my ministry remain the same week to week, such as preparing a sermon or offering a Bible study. Like many of you, I come to the office with a list of things to get done on a given day. What about a liturgical day, when I begin the day with the Divine Liturgy and don’t get into the office until 11:15 a.m.? I found that for many years (and still sometimes even today, but less so), that I would be anxious to get to work and I wouldn’t get anything out of the Divine Liturgy. It was like my body was in church but my brain was in the office. After the service, I would feel despondent, like I had truly wasted my time. I hadn’t worshipped, I hadn’t worked, I had nothing to show for my time. Over time, I’ve learned to be more present, to put aside other thoughts and just worship, to stipulate in my own mind that no work will get done on a liturgical day before 11:15 a.m.
Perhaps some of you will relate to this because you struggle to be focused in worship. And perhaps others of you will relate because you struggle to focus on being with your children, or leisure activities because you are still thinking about work. Then there are the other anxieties we have—worry about the future, will we have enough money to retire, will we get sick, how will we get it all in. And these quickly can spiral to thoughts of where is God in this chaos or what’s the point of all this? We all contemplate these questions.
Christ provides us with the answer to these common anxieties—focus on today. And if today even is too big, then focus on this moment. Focus on being present in whatever moment you are in. I can’t do anything else while writing a Prayer Team message, so I can sit and focus and it gets written quickly, or I can split my focus between writing and worrying about the next thing; however when I do that, the writing takes longer and the next thing doesn’t get any more done because I’m just thinking about it and not actually doing it.
There is one other anxiety reducing thing we can all do, and that is speak better to one another. Proverbs 12:25 reads, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” Encouragement and positive reinforcement are always stress-reducing. When we discourage and negatively reinforce people, this causes anxiety. We can all be part of the solution regarding reducing stress and anxiety if we speak nicer to one another, if we go out of our way to compliment and encourage, if we provide constructive criticism rather than destructive, something as simple as greeting one another with a smile, all of these help in reducing the anxiety and stress we all feel.
Lord, You have taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Lord, give me the things I need today, today. Small things, like patience, efficiency, focus, an opportunity to laugh, an opportunity to serve someone else. When it all gets overwhelming, bring my focus back to the present moment and making the most of it. Help me to focus on one task at a time, one opportunity at a time, one person at a time. Help me to see what needs to be done on this day and what can wait for another day. Give me the confidence that with Your grace, I will be able to cover all the bases.
Focus on being present in whatever you are doing. Work through one task on your list while trying not to worry about the whole list. Focus on the needs of today. Go out of your way to say something positive to others today.
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