Anxiety (Luke 12:22-34)

On the heels of talking about the idol of materialism, and placing our faith in wealth, Jesus warns His disciples against worry. Worry and materialism are two sides of the same coin. It has been said that, if you require things to go according to plan to experience peace, you are confusing peace with control. Materialism promises us we can rest in the security that our wealth with give us control over life’s unforeseen challenges. Worry tells us that we will succumb to those challenges if we drop our guard and surrender control.

Control is an illusion. No one has that sort of power. We all place our trust for the unseen problems of life in someone else’s hands. Either in the God of the universe, some other earthly power like a king, president, governmental system, etc. Or we place it in a fictional version of ourselves, that promises to deal with problems by worrying about them before they happen. This self-delusion that worry will save us is a horrible taskmaster that is selling us a lie. Jesus reminds us that worry does not help, and instead we should trust the One who made us and loves us.

Instead of pursuing control, safety, or security, we should chase after the things of God—eternal things—and let God handle the unforeseeable. This is not an argument to surrender responsibility. Just remember the moral of the story of the rich fool. We are supposed to take care of the things within our control, including our neighbors and those around us we can help. We just aren’t supposed to worry about potential things that are unfulfilled and outside of our responsibility. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, but eternity is certainty. So invest your heart in that.