I don’t struggle with anxiety all the time. Not to look down on those who do, but this is not a major struggle in my life. But every once in a while, anxiety and worry will sneak up on my and I find my emotions and my thoughts so overtaken with it. It kind of reminds me of gardening in a rainy spring. If I neglect weeding for even a few days, the garden will soon look like nothing but weeds.
[Side note: I don't have a garden now, but we always did growing up. Weeding often was my job, and one I didn't care for too much. Regardless, I hope to have a garden of my own one day. There's nothing more refreshing than a fresh-picked cucumber.]
This morning as I was driving to work listening to the usual political banter on the radio, I found my thoughts flitting between one worry to another. As I sat stuck in traffic, I had to turn the radio off and pray, turning this worries and cares over to God. When I look back on situations like these, I realize how dumb I was to worry about them, but I wish I could always remember that at the time.
I’ll be meditating on Matthew 6:25-34 today:
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,
yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’
For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Wednesday night I found myself worrying. I wouldn’t say that I struggle with worry regularly, but occasionally I get caught up in it. Wednesday was one of those nights.
