There was a magazine that I used to skim in the days of my youth called Mad Magazine. From what I have been able to discover, it is not around anymore. Every issue that I looked at had on its cover its mascot. Alfred E. Neuman, with sometimes the caption “What? Me Worry?”
Despite the magazine and the message about worry, it seems that a lot of people spend a lot of time worrying. They worry about what has happened and what is happening. Why they even worry what might happen even though experience shows us that so many times what we worry about in the future does not take place. There are a lot of things that give us pause to worry. In my opinion, consuming all that you see or hear about in our 24/7 news cycle is enough to make any of us to worry.
Several years ago, I came across a poem that speaks about worry. Recently, I discovered that the author of that poem was Elizabeth Cheney and it is titled “Overheard in the Orchard”. While the poem was written in 1856 I think it ia as applicable today as it was then. The poem goes like this:
Said the Robin to the
Sparrow,
“I should really like
to know
Why these anxious
human beings
Rush about and worry
so!”
Said the Sparrow to
the Robin,
“Friend, I think that
it must be
That they have no
heavenly Father
Such as cares for you
and me!”
Jesus used the
metaphor of the birds in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 6: 25-33) when he exclaimed:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more
than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the
birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than
they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour
to your life[e]? 28 “And
why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do
not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon
in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If
that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and
tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of
little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we
eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For
the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you
need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has
enough trouble of its own.
Oh, for a heart that seeks to be free from worry because of trusting
in the Lord. Have a joy-filled
day.- Pastor Randy Wall
Prayer- God, help me to worry less and trust you
more; in Christ our Lord. Amen.
