I am certainly not against the idea of preparing wisely for our futures (isn't this what formal education and working to earn money are essentially about?), but as I examine much of our culture and human nature, this proper kind of preparing for our future is easily morphed into a distracting, draining and lurking toxic anxiety about the future. I have even observed people who pray obsessively that is actually more of an expression of a paralyzing fear of living than of a genuine trust in God.
I don't think it's wrong to have a compelling and informing "vision" for our life, but I do know too many people who handle this in such a way that they seem to always be living "in the future"—unable to gratefully celebrate the goodness and beauty that is present and who have a weakness of wrongly "using" people to accomplish their "vision" that they are so aggressively pursuing.
Jesus, in his most famous sermon, included quite a few sentences regarding this matter of anxiety and worry regarding our uncertain earthly futures. I think we, in our modern culture, sometimes kind of pat Jesus on the shoulder, figuratively speaking, and say patronizingly, "Yea, Jesus, these are wonderful poetic thoughts about not striving to secure our life in this world…flowers and birds… and peaceful submission to the Father's providence and promised provision… and contentment and simply being 'present in the moment'. But come on, this isn't actually how you have ordained for us to live…is it?"
More and more, I have become convicted that this counsel is indeed nothing less than the genius of the Prince of Life on public display. Jesus is not messing with us. He is not being impractical. He is speaking sober words of truth that hold keys to the secret of living noble human lives for the honor of our Creator and Father. He is freely holding out to us the wisdom that leads to the kind of love, peace and joy that the people of this world are vainly paying billions of dollars and stepping unjustly on others to achieve.
Still more to come...
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