Weekly Meditation for Nov 15

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Weekly Meditation
By Michael Desmond

Matthew 6:25-33 (New International Version)
Do Not Worry
"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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I don't know about you, but for me worrying is not necessarily something that can just be switched off-even if God tells me to do it. The lifelong trials of career, children, marriage, sonship, and friendship take their toll. Over time some level of worry seems to get baked into our chemistry. It becomes a habit of sorts.

One way to break a habit is to work at replacing it with another. Have you tried the practice of thankfulness? Work at being thankful for literally everything (and if you are really searching for what to be thankful for, add opposites). For example: sunshine, rain; fresh clothes, rumpled ones; sight, darkness; people, solitude; laughter, sorrow; community, aloneness-just on and on. It's kind of a searching of everything (events, people, thoughts and mysteries) that happens to try to experience thankfulness at finding God in it.

Maybe you have heard it expressed simply as the "attitude of gratitude". (Maybe this is a practice you also follow.) This practice often clears and revives the mind. Anxiety levels can fall off dramatically. Thoughts and energies focus where they belong, on God. After all, who are we thankful to? An added bonus is recognizing the sometimes subtle experience of receiving God's grace. It is often easier to perceive when we are in a thankful state of mind.

Seeking God's kingdom and righteousness kind of follow along naturally. (Seeking, even if not achieving!)

Thank you God for the opportunity to express this viewpoint. May we find you often today. Amen.