Matthew 6: 24-34
One of the more interesting campaign buzzwords is the term “culture of fear”. By this, proponents mean that we as Americans are filled with fear even though we are the most powerful nation on earth with one of the highest standards of living. Yet it appears we are one of the most fearful nations, too, waiting for Al Qaida to attack, worrying about gasoline going to $8 a gallon, rising food prices, not to mention health care costs etc. There is a lot that we worry about.
Worry is an interesting topic. There are lots of drugs that deal with anxiety disorders, there are various quasi-spiritual/exercise prescriptions for dealing with high stress and anxiety (yoga, aromatherapy, etc.). There is a whole industry built around antidotes to worry in all of its forms.
I will always remember the character in the irreverent and outrageous MAD magazine, Alfred E. Neuman, who used to say, “What, me worry?”. That was his slogan. However, everyone is struggling with the issue of worry and it gets even more serious when you consider the recent news of Senator Ted Kennedy who has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor at the age of 76. That diagnosis has been heard by thousands of Americans year after year and it strikes fear in your heart in the most devastating way. When you get hit by a bad diagnosis, fear runs rampant and ripples far beyond you to all those around you. At the announcement of Kennedy’s illness, senators began to cry.
Cancer does not respect age or economic status.
Actually, one of the central themes in Jesus’ teachings of the Sermon on the Mount runs totally counter to the aspects associated with worry, fear and anxiety. He says, “Do not worry about your life, what you should eat or what you should drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing… Can any of you by worry add a single hour to your span of life?” He goes on to tell us to look to the birds of the air and to the lilies of the field who seem to be worry-free as well. There is always a knee-jerk response from me when I hear this passage such as “Is Jesus really living in this world?” or “He has probably never heard of my problems”. On the other hand, I have to say that he is right. Worry never seems to get us anywhere in the end. It has been said that “today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday”.
Despite Jesus’ admonition to us not to worry, we still do. Worry is a sin. It is part of our human condition that we have this impulse because we, by nature, lack faith. It is the permanent Christian struggle to have faith even though skepticism, cynicism and apathy derail us on a daily basis. Paradoxically, doubt is a part of faith, and without it we could not speak in terms of faith. Our cry for certainty is never answered until we discover faith. Living by faith is always the key—it is the answer, but it has been tried and found difficult.
Recently we said good-bye to Hamilton Jordan, the “wiz kid” who, at the age of 26, ran a successful campaign for Jimmy Carter for governor as well as for president. He became the president’s chief of staff. He was a gifted strategist and a powerful person to deal with, but that all changed, including his life, when he began the fight for his life two decades ago upon his diagnosis with cancer. He became a tireless advocate for cancer research and spent countless hours counseling friends and strangers fighting the same illness. His life and energy turned in a different direction, no longer concerned with the ugliness of politics, but with the ugliness of cancer. He wrote a book entitled “No Such Thing as a Bad Day”. He was asked how he could write a book with such a title given all that he went through. Jordan put it this way: “I was counseling a young man who had a brain tumor and I called him one day and asked him, ‘Are you having a good day?’, and he said, ‘Well, my wife is 32 years old, my kids are four and six, and my doctor tells me I have about two months to live. There is no such thing as a bad day.’” He said it was that attitude toward life that he tried to reflect and write about in this book.
In the end, we are creatures who worry, who are fearful, and who struggle to deal with the issues that scare us in this thing called life. Like the disciples we pray for more faith and try to live with the confidence that, as the sun rises every day, we are not alone in this universe.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the oldest living Nobel Prize recipient, was asked whether he fears death and his answer is: “No, I am not afraid of death any more. When I was young the early death of my father cast a shadow over me -- he died at the age of 27 -- and I was afraid to die before all my literary plans came true. But between 30 and 40 years of age my attitude to death became quite calm and balanced. I feel it is a natural, but no means the final milestone of one’s existence”.
He wrote this: “What about the main thing in life? I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary… property and position, all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and is confiscated in one felt night. Live with a steady superiority over life… don’t be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: The bitter doesn’t last forever and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms bend, if both eyes see, and if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well.”
Of course, you can put me in the worry club, along with many others, but the above quote has had a profound effect on my life. I have had to rub my own eyes to see differently and purify my own heart to remove the needless concerns that can devour my energy. It all comes down to this: “Prize above all else those who love you and who wish you well.” That is the good news that Jesus is trying to tell us.
In the end, there is a loving presence with us in our journey. We live under the canopy of God’s forgiving grace and love. We need to remember Jesus’ words “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
MEH
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