"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 clothing? Look at the birds…Are you not more important than they?…"
Remember the old song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy…" (Whistle here…)
What is the heart of our worry and anxiety in our life? Why do we get so caught up in things and let them consume us, control us, guide and direct us?
At the very heart of today's gospel as Jesus is speaking and inviting us not to worry he makes an observation, "Look at the birds is the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them…Learn form the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them…"
Right in between that observation, snuggled comfortably between the birds and wild flowers Jesus says these words, "Are not you more important then the?"
That is the question for us. Why do we worry? Why do we have anxiety? Why do we need medication for our nerves and for our ulcers? Simply this: We do not value ourselves sufficiently. We undervalue our worth before the eyes of our heavenly Father.
We suffer from spiritual low self-esteem. we don't think we count. We don't thin God is concerned? We under value God's care and concern even after he sent his son to die on the cross to prove his love, his undying faithfulness and desire for our well being.
We doubt. We refuse to accept the high value he has placed upon us.
This is the source of our worry and our anxiety an ultimately our misery: spiritual low self esteem.
As we get ready for Lent perhaps we should take that question and let it leads us through these 40 days of retreat: Are not you more import an than they?
Perhaps at the end we can say "Yes."
No comments:
Post a Comment