Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
This is the time of year when I clean out the household files. It’s quite a process. And since you have ample time to read this article, then clearly you have plenty of time to learn the intimate details of my personal home filing system.
So, I have 10 file boxes. One for each year. In each box is everything that I thought might need to be kept from that year “just in case.” Receipts, warranties, canceled checks, etc.
Soon, I will empty the 2009 box, shred everything I kept from 2009, take all the 2018 files I want to keep, put them into the 2009 box, and relabel it as 2018. I live an exciting life, huh?
Here’s the point: Every time I have done this, I am always amused by the plans, goals, and happenings from a decade ago. Many of those things were things I likely worried and stressed over that year.
It makes me reflect on what Jesus said: “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 than food, and the body more than clothes? … Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? … So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
For all the plans and problems of 2009, here I am in 2019 moving on. As I put the past in the past (well, the shredder), there were some lessons for me… and maybe you too:
1. Worry is wasted energy. You won’t get it right anyway. 99.9% of the things I worried and stressed about never came to pass. Most of the things that might cause worry were things I never saw coming.
2. Worry is poor stewardship. God gives me a finite amount of time and energy each day. Worry is poor use of both.
3. Worry steals joy. There is more to life than what you’re worrying about. And if you spend all your time worrying, you lose both your time and your opportunities for joy.
4. Worry give the illusion of control. When you worry over anything, you think you’re doing something. But you’re just fooling yourself. You have no ability to add even an hour to your life. And, in truth, worry is probably stealing your hours from you.
You and I are not guaranteed ten years. Really, we are not guaranteed anything beyond today. So, do the best you can do today. Seek the Lord first today. Stop trusting your own plans and start walking by faith in Him today. Doing that, we can trust that tomorrow is secure.