October 02, 2009
On Time
In advertising a catchy phrase is called a tag line. Recently I read an article by advertising copywriter John Cadley who said one of his favorite tag lines is, “solving tomorrow’s problems today”. In a business sense the phrase is meant to project control and foresight, but on a personal level many of us worry ourselves to death trying to fight tomorrow’s battles today. Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matt 6:34 ESV) Good advice…Besides, what on earth would we do if tomorrow’s problems showed up a day early?
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Gail;
-----Look at the clothes your wearing. They began with some cotton farmer investing in land, then planting seed, then harvesting. His harvest went to another person who had invested in machinery to refine the cotton, then to another to make thread, then to another to make cloth, etc., until you found them in stores and bought them with money you earned by working. Every person involved in this whole process was thinking about tomorrow, or there would have been no planting, refining, stitching, selling, buying, or working to earn money. If none toiled, there would be a lot of naked people running around, because clothes don’t grow on lily plants or amongst the field grass. The same can be said for the food you eat, the home in which you live, the vehicle you drive, and the computer you are using. Life is so necessarily involved in preparing for tomorrow that we do not realize how much of today we actually do spend arranging for tomorrow. Even your call to God through Jesus Christ concerns tomorrow, for that is when the Day of Judgment comes. Yet Jesus is never wrong, and He said do not be anxious for tomorrow.
-----What follows may sound like splitting hairs, but it isn’t. Anxiety is an emotional response. Granted, the lilies God grows have neither thought nor emotion, and the grass of the field makes no action for its clothing, but I assure you, the birds of the air had to leave their nests and hunt their food. Yes, God does feed them, but He does not place the seeds and worms in their beaks while they sit in nests He did not make for them. They toil to make their nests and find their food. Still, Jesus was not wrong in His analogy. The birds know they must build nests today in which to lay eggs tomorrow, and they know they must hunt food so their chicks and they both will live until tomorrow. They do this from intelligence and forethought, just as we must solve tomorrow’s problems that have real roots in today.
-----But we must also solve those problems with intelligence and forethought. And part of that intelligence is understanding that only a portion of tomorrow’s problems do have roots in today, and also that those roots are only a portion of their particular problem coming tomorrow. So, there is only a measured amount that can be done today for tomorrow’s troubles. When that much has been done your responsibility to be prepared will be fulfilled, and your attention to it can be dismissed. But, if it is not, you pass from intelligently dealing with tomorrow to dealing with it emotionally. And that is anxiety.
-----Anxiety will drive the productive individual into a selfish, over-storing of goods and supplies. It will drive the unproductive into hand-wringing poverty. Both will be driven away from necessary attention for their spiritual being into unnecessary attention to their physical being. Jesus is not saying pay no attention to tomorrow. He is saying the controlling attention must be given to the kingdom of heaven, sufficient attention must be given to physical survival, and no attention must be given to destructive emotion. I love how Paul describes the kingdom of heaven, for it fits what Jesus meant like a designer glove. And if you would allow me to loosely state it, I think you might agree. Do what is right to be doing. Be peaceful with God in your situation. And have joy in the Holy Spirit. (Rom 14:17)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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