Reading
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” — Matthew 6:34 (NRSV)
Reflection
When I started junior high I had one constant worry—my height. Since I started school I had always been one of the smallest boys in my class. My dad was only 5’7″, so it stood to reason.
Jesus asked, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” He might as well have said, “Can you make yourself grow by worrying about it?”
Pastor Mark posed the question again Sunday: Does worrying do us any good?
In a famous study, scientists studied students at the University of North Carolina. The students were tested and divided into two groups: optimists and pessimists. The study lasted forty years and was published in the Mayo Clinic Medical Journal.
Over the four decades, 476 of those who had taken the test died of causes ranging from accident to illness to suicide to homicide.
By tracking and collating all this information, researchers determined that the pessimists had a significantly greater likelihood of dying sooner from any cause than did the optimists. As the dry language of the findings report puts it, “… those who scored as pessimistic had decreased rates of longevity compared with optimistic individuals.”
Letting go of worry and anxiety helps us live a longer and healthier life.
In today’s passage it’s important to understand that Jesus’ words were directed to people who did have to sow, to reap, to toil and to spin, and he wasn’t telling them to stop doing those tasks; he simply wanted them to understand that their lives were a lot more than the sum of their sowing, reaping, toiling, spinning, or the length of their resume.
I hit a growth spurt before ninth grade. The genetics finally kicked in from my mom’s side of the family. Football suddenly became a whole lot more fun. And worrying didn’t produce one inch of that growth. My worry had all been for nothing.
So much worry is.
