Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34

Anxiety is a tough feeling to tame, and one I’ve been grappling with for more than 2 decades. Whether it is the anxiety felt over little things, like whether you’ll be able to find the time to run all of your errands in a given day, or larger issues, like employment, health, economic status, it never fails to do one thing: skew the world and everything in it into a darker light. Suddenly small, unimportant events and details become the linchpin of negative outcomes that, despite being illogical, seem completely set in stone.

The bible isn’t very fond of worrying. In fact, there’s a whole section of Matthew devoted to explaining why it’s a waste of time. “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” asks Matthew 6:27. Do birds or flowers spend their days worried over tomorrow’s outcomes? Absolutely not, and yet, God provides for them. How much more important are we, in God’s eyes, than birds and flowers? It’s an extremely comforting passage and, for obvious reasons, has always been one of my favorites.

Recently, I was able to add another shorter, non-biblical passage to my list of comforting quotations. If you aren’t familiar with the smartphone app, Instagram, it’s basically wall of images, photographs or otherwise, shared by your friends or by public figures, companies, or groups that you choose to follow. Think of it like Facebook but with less words.

One of the accounts I follow is called Lord Posts, which simply describes itself as “Lives 4 Christ,” and shares a multitude of happy, non–biblical phrases and quotations to remind you that God loves you and will always support you. Their most recent post reads:
   “The things you take for granted, someone else is praying for.”

This really clicked with me. Anxiety has such a way of coloring all the good in your life as possible catalysts for bad, or, in its more extreme moments, making you overlook all the good entirely. After reading this short, simple statement, I reflected briefly on all the things I had prayed for, for so long, that have all been delivered to me, and all the ways God continues to bless me and my family every day. Yes, the negatives will always be there, but it is so important to prevent them from overshadowing the positives.

Lord, helps us to focus not on the negatives, or potential negatives on life, but rather on all that which you have given us. Help us to be as the flowers of the earth and the birds of the air, and let hope and assurance replace doubt and fear. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Contributed by Michael
Monday May 16, 2016
Liturgical Year C: Week 25
Liturgical Color: red
Sunday Gospel reading: cPentecost
Day of Pentecost