No worries, mate!

“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?" -- Matthew 6:25-27

No question. Hurricanes are serious business. They threaten lives, they threaten property-- and they threaten dreams. In a matter of hours, life courses are changed forever. 

We sat this past week and watched as Hurricane Irene, whose name comes from the Greek word for peace, bore down on the most heavily-populated regions of our American eastern seaboard. 

Those in Irene's path prepared as best they could, storing water and batteries or moving to higher ground. And that made sense. But the responses from the rest of us?

Our eyes grew bigger as the waves crashed along the shore, shook our heads in disbelief as daring young men grabbed their boogie boards and jumped in. I wondered if they had ancestors who went over Niagara Falls in a barrel-- just to prove they could. (Many of them were wrong; they could not. And this week, at least one person also discovered his own mortality.) 

Headlines on CNN grew bigger and bolder with each passing hour. Adjectives became increasingly grim.

One politician dared to suggest this was a "warning from God" against the government of the US. (Hmm-- not the God I serve, thank you very much.)


And still we watched, unable to tear our eyes away. The approaching hurricane, it seemed, served to remind us that there is much to fear, much to worry about in this world.

As Jesus taught from the mount, in the same lesson when he taught his disciples how to pray and reminded each of us of our many blessings, he also reminded us that the future belongs to God.

Worry does no good. Playing the "What if?" game, unless it is with the intention of dispelling fear, is futile at best.


God has charted our course, from end to beginning. God has stationed himself along our paths, every step of the way, if we but have eyes to see and ears to hear. When we get to tomorrow, we will discover that God was already there ahead of us, and whether tomorrow holds challenge or charm, God is there, ready to carry us through the storms and celebrate with us as they clear, help us clean up and start afresh. 

Matthew 6 goes on to say, "Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for each day brings worries enough of its own" (Mt 6:34). 


Perhaps today's worries include caring for a sick friend who cannot get to the market. 

Maybe an elderly neighbour needs a smile that only you can give.
 
There may be a shelter nearby where hungry stomachs are filled. Perhaps, as you ladle soup, you can offer Bread of Life to go with that, a refreshing taste of Living Water or a Living Word.

Seems to me, the more we work to solve today's worries, the fewer worries tomorrow might actually bring.