This popped up on my phone early this morning…
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ~Matthew 6:34
Happy Monday. Here’s your Verse of the Day. Eat up!
Okay, so I’ve probably nibbled on this little breakfast nugget more times than I can remember. It’s one of the most lionized passages in scripture and intrinsically embedded in my subconscious. Well, I hope so anyway.
But you know how it goes: Just because you’ve read something once doesn’t mean you’ve wrung out every possible ounce of flavor from it.
Well, a few moments after I’ve taken a quick and superficial gander at my phone, I couldn’t shake off a feeling that I might’ve missed something vital. Something that had been hiding in plain sight all this time! So I stopped what I was doing and sat for a moment. I read the verse a second time.
And a third.
Hmmm… possibly a couple more. But what I ultimately saw blew me away.
Tomorrow will worry…
Did you get that? Tomorrow will worry. Not me. Tomorrow will.
Worrying is not my business. Not my monkey, not my circus! Nope!
Whew! What a relief! Right?
Wait… easier said than done, you say? Yep, I thought the same. I hear you, my friend. But let’s read on…
It says: Tomorrow will worry… about itself.
Now, is it just me or is tomorrow being portrayed here as a bit ambiguous and problematic? Kind of a nutcase, if you will?
Think about it. It doesn’t say that tomorrow will solve any of my problems. It doesn’t say that it will resolve anything at all or that it will eventually sort itself out. It only says that it’ll worry about itself!
The funny thing is that tomorrow never really comes. It never arrives, does it? When you think tomorrow’s here, it’s already moved on.
Okay, so if tomorrow is indeed ambiguous and problematic, then am I not crazy to even worry about it, to begin with?
This is what I gather from all this: Jesus is saying not to worry because if you believe in him, the cares of tomorrow gets deleted from the equation and hope takes its place. As far as time is concerned, we are already there. Through hope, we are where we belong. In Him.
And that, I believe, is nothing to worry about.