Today is Enough

The autumn colours are stunning at Crathes Castle just now – and the weather this morning is a breath of summer to set us up for what might come.

What might come. That’s the trouble with us human beings – we are more than able to imagine what might come, and then spoil what we have today.

Jesus advises ‘Don’t worry about tomorrow. There are enough anxieties for the day.’ Or in the old version ‘Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’

I listened to the birds singing their hearts out, and realized that they’re not anxiously imagining the snows to come, the shortage of berries and  bugs, nor the cold north winds. They are sitting in the gloriously attired trees singing their best because – because why? I don’t really know why birds sing but I imagine (there we go again, imagining) that it’s because they are happy. 

Sometimes we are advised by wise folks to be ‘fully present in the moment’. We are all prone to living the present as if by default while we imagine or worry about the future. 

I’ve got a lot to do today. But as I do it, I’m going to put on a praise CD and sing my heart out to my Lord Jesus, because today is good: I’ve eaten, I’ve been with my loving husband and dear friends, I’ve spent time in prayer and in the Bible, and I’ve got work to do. 

And I’m going to trust my faithful Lord Jesus for tomorrow.

Sufficient unto the day...

Sufficient unto the Day...

To one of my vintage, that title encourages the completion  ... ‘is the evil thereof’. 

It’s from the Sermon on the Mount preached by Jesus. Mostly we think of the so-called Beatitudes when we think of that body of teaching, but in fact it contains loads more than that, and one thing more is his argument against worry. 

Don’t worry, Jesus says, just trust in God. He gives the natural world all they need to be warm and fed, and he will look after you, too.  Sharp intake of breath. What about famine victims? What about people in our own country choosing to heat the room rather than eat, unable to afford both? 

I don’t have the answer. But I do have an observation gained over a few years of living. Worry doesn’t get you anywhere. All it does is mess up your digestion and keep your eyes open through the long hours of the night. And in the morning, you are no further forward, and perhaps have even slipped backwards, in that you can’t think well without proper rest. And you probably can’t see that sometimes, you – and I – may be the answer to feeding some of the poor.

I’ve just read Matthew chapters 5 to 7, which is the Sermon. Challenging. Challenging beyond my ability to succeed at it. Love my enemy? Don’t criticize others? I’ll be happy when I’m in mourning?

Ask, Jesus advises. Seek. Knock. There’s no way you can do this stuff on your own. You are – I am – totally dependent on God to do it in me, for me, through me. And if I can get to the point of admitting that, and asking, seeking, knocking, maybe, just maybe, I can let go of the worry.

Sufficient unto the day...or in today’s language, ‘each day has enough trouble of its own’. 

So I’m on my way out, expecting my loving heavenly Father to be with me through the day. Are you?