TROUBLE ENOUGH


So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has trouble enough of its own. 
(Matthew 6: 34 – NAS)

 
Jesus has reminded us in several different ways that we can trust God to watch out for us. The Lord is our heavenly Father who cares about us. He is our good Master who protects and provides for His servants. Even as He cares for the “little things” of creation, such as small birds and lilies that are here today and gone tomorrow, how much more does He care about us? We are the ones He desires to call His Children. We are the ones to whom He desires to give the authority of heaven.

Of course the Lord will watch out for us!

So here, Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow.

After all, can we make tomorrow come any faster by worrying about it? No. And usually, if we have fallen into worrying about things, we do not want tomorrow to come faster.

It is so easy for us to anticipate problems, even when we are in the midst of a current set of challenges. As we wrestle with the current difficulties, we lift our heads for a moment and see that outside the ring a couple more wait to pounce on us in turn. So we start worrying about them, because they look big and bulky, and we know we will be exhausted after dealing with the current challenge. So our grip slips and the current combatant starts pummeling us even more.

Jesus reminds us that each day has “trouble enough of its own.”

Deal with the here and now.

As simple as that.

The truth of the matter is that once we have dealt with the current problem, two things can happen. First, we might learn that we are much more competent and capable than we thought we were. And second, sometimes those problems we see in tomorrow are very dependent upon what we are dealing with today. If we solve this problem right now, some of those anticipated challenges evaporate.

We cannot know what God will do, other than love us. That much we are assured of: that His love is always with us, His attention is always upon us, that He knows already our every need and is laying groundwork ahead of us. All we need to is trust Him and follow His pathway.

Why do we find that so difficult?

We let many things pull at us during the course of the day. We spend time in morning prayer with the Lord and then immediately afterward dash off to deal with the days chores and challenges. We feel responsible for the work we are supposed to be doing, to do our jobs, take care of our families, meet our obligations. But we do not always remember to invite God to come along with us.

Oh, He is always there, of course. But He does prefer when we bring Him along intentionally on our part, when we consider Him an active partner in all our endeavors.

And yet we forget about that part of the relationship.

So we wind ourselves up over problems we encounter, whether pragmatic things we need to untangle or relationships that have gone awry. We’re the ones that are supposed to deal with these things, aren’t we? Will we bring it to a successful conclusion? Will we get all the work done today that needs to be done today? Will we have the right answer for the boss? Worry, worry, worry. And then we have to do it all over again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. Round and round and round with seemingly little variation.

And then Jesus tells us not to worry, not about the concerns for today and not about the troubles of tomorrow.

We move through time. We think about time. We think about days past and how they affected us, both our personal histories and the scope of the ages that preceded us. We think about what will unfold before us in the next hour, the next day, the next week and on into the future of possibilities. Something about or very nature compels us to be conscious of this vast scope of time and possibility.

And yet we cannot really do anything to affect anything on either side of this moment, not in a substantial way. We cannot reach into the past and change a fact, no matter how much we may wish to do so. Likewise, we cannot reach into the future and pin down something we deeply desire to occur, no matter how great our desire to do so. All we have is this moment, right now.

What then is before you? Are the problems in front of you really so great that you cannot deal with them? Or have you been ballooning up their size because you have filled them with the dreadful possibilities of tomorrow? If we let out the hot air of “what it will be like tomorrow”, what do you have?

Usually, we find we have something we can deal with. It may not be pleasant, and yes, it may have to be dealt with again tomorrow. But it can be faced. If it is something that requires a decision from us, then decide. Say “Yes” or “No” to whatever the matter is, and then move on. There’s no need to get into a staring match with Today’s Problem, hoping that just by staring it down you will reduce it to ashes. Alas, that is not the way of This-Day’s-Trouble. “Maybe if I do nothing, it will go away,” rarely works the way we wish it would.

I’m a great one for anticipating problems. It is part of the skill set of a Control Freak. If I’m running something, I try to figure out ahead of time everything that might possibly turn up and then I build in the solution to those snags before-hand. That’s part of the job, when you are overseeing a project or event, part of today's “troubles.” But once that is done, I might still start fretting about everything that falls outside my control and ability to anticipate. Earthquakes, fire, tempests, human locusts, whatever. Is the Zombie Apocalypse really going to happen tomorrow? Probably not. Why am I worrying about that?

All joking aside, Jesus wants us to remember that we do have enough on our plate as it is. Being merciful, kind, being a peacemaker, these things require our attention to the here-and-now. We should not let ourselves be distracted by what-might-be. Until we actually meet it, there is nothing we can do about it. If we are always looking ahead, we can easily miss what is right in front of us. And our proper service to the Lord lies in dealing with those people and circumstances that are right in front of us, right now.

 Today has “trouble enough” of its own. Deal with that, and stop worrying.