25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear

Don’t Worry, Be Happy! Matthew 6:25-34<= /p>

&nb= sp;²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or ab= out your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes= ? ²⁶Look 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 th= ey? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

²⁸&q= uot;And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They = do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all= his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clo= thes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ^{31So
do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'Wh=
at
shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and
your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first =
his
kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.}

That was a beautiful anthem the choir shared with us earlier, based on Psalm 55:22—“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain Thee.” What I really wanted them to sing, though, Cara didn’t f= eel was appropriate. So I’l= l just read you the words:

“He= re's a little song I wrote, you might want to sing it note for note, don't worry, = be happy//In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it doubl= e // don't worry, be happy.”

You know = that little song, don’t you? I was reminded of it recently when I heard it on somebody’s phone—it = was their ring tone. Maybe based = on what Jesus says here, we should make it our ring tone too! “Don’t worry, be happy.”

Bobby McFerrin wrote the song over twenty years ago. In 1988, it became the first a cap= ella song to top the Billboard charts, and it won Grammies in 1989 for “So= ng of the Year,” “Record of the Year,” and “Best Male = Pop Vocal Performance.” It = still brings a smile to my face every time I hear it.

This verse seems especially relevant today with evictions and foreclosures on the rise: “The landlord say your rent is late, he may have to litigate, Don’t worry, be happy. = And we would all do well to remember this sage advice: “When you worry, your face will frown, and that will bring everybody down, so don't worry, be hap= py.” (Makes you want to whistle…)

Well, wha= t do you make of this? Not the son= g now, but Jesus’ instructions to stop worrying about our lives, what we eat= or drink, or the clothes we wear. After all, the Lord takes care of the birds and the flowers; surely He’ll take care of us!

I hear th= ese words and the first thought that comes to mind is that I cannot recall a ti= me ever in my life when I had any reason at all to be worried about having amp= le food, clothing, shelter, or any other basic necessity of life. Have you? Most of us haven’t.

We may ha= ve to worry because we don’t have enough pantry or refrigerator space for a= ll the food we have, or enough closet space for all our clothes, but a lack of food and clothing is not our concern. People in Jesus’ day may have= had to worry about these things, but not us.&n= bsp; We’ve got nothing to worry about!

But we don’t let that stop us, do we? We worry anyway. It= 217;s how we’re wired. Truth = be known--some of us worry more about people who don’t worry than we do about those who obviously worry too much!--which is odd given the fact that Jesus says that we really shouldn’t be worrying at all.

There is a Swedish proverb that goes like this: “Worry gives a small thing a big shadow.” That reminds m= e of the 23^rd Psalm, the part that speaks of “the valley of the sha= dow of death.” That’s= a big shadow—death--and yet we are told that we should “fear no evil” even in that dark, shadowy valley. Why? Because “thou are with me.= 221;

This is w= hat Jesus is getting at here. We = can worry ourselves sick…or, we can have faith. We choose: trust in the Lord—= ;or worry. Jesus tells us, though= , that if we choose worry, it puts us in the same camp as pagans. Listen:

“&#= 8230;O you of little faith…do= not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shal= l we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (Matthew 6:30b-32)

Most of u= s here know we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and wants only the best for our lives. But do our worries cal= l this faith we claim into question? Jesus is saying this: if we really had to depend on ourselves for all these thing= s, we would have good reason to worry—but we have a Heavenly Father!

“Do= n’t worry, be happy!” Jesus= doesn’t speak those exact words, but the introduction to His Sermon on the Mount in= cludes eight Beatitudes, each one beginning with “Blessed are you,” wh= ich can also be translated “Happy are you…”=

Jesus sti= cks with His theme. A person who worries all the time is not going to be happy, or feel blessed—and th= ey may not allow anybody else to be happy or blessed either—as the song says= , ‘their face will frown, and bring everybody down!’ Maybe that’s why we call them worry warts!

When Jesu= s talks about worry, please do not think that this is the same thing as making plans and preparations for the future. Three times, Jesus says, “Do not worry…” If you have the King James translat= ion, it says, “Take no thought…”—for example, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow...”--which can be confusing.=

In the King’s English of 1611, “take no thought” meant “do= not worry.” It does not pre= clude planning and forethought, though. Those “birds of the air” that Jesus mentions do not spend all their t= ime flying around. They build nes= ts in which they will later lay eggs and sit on them until they hatch and then th= ey’ll feed their young until it’s time to push them out of the nest. I don’t think the birds worry about any of this, but they get it done.

The lilie= s of the field don’t labor or spin, but they do shoot roots deep into the = soil for water and nourishment. It’s not planning and all activity with the future in mind that Jesus condemns, but anxious thoughts—worry. If you belong to me, Jesus tells u= s, don’t do that! Don̵= 7;t worry…be happy.

Listen: l= ife is full of things to worry about if you really want to worry. Some have refused to touch spinach= since the last spinach recall, and others are still staying away from peanut butt= er. No doubt some will go back to eati= ng peanut butter long before they ever return to spinach, though—right, kids? It’s just one of those sacri= fices you have to make!

Jerry Sei= nfeld, the comedian, does a routine about people’s fears. “According to most studies,&= #8221; he says, “people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death.” Then he adds, “Does that seem right? That means to the aver= age person, if you have to go to a funeral, you’re better off in the cask= et than doing the eulogy.” (SeinLanguage, p.120)

My mother= is 90 years old. I remember the fir= st time she flew on an airplane. When she got home, she said, “I never put all my weight down during that entire flight.” I tried= to imagine what that would look like. I really don’t think all that worrying she did affected the outcome of the flight though.

If your l= ife is often plagued by worry, try this little exercise. Determine what percentage of your worries are about things that are never likely to happen: plane crashes, lightning strikes, shark attacks. Choose not to worry about those things any more.&= nbsp; Pray and trust God instead.

Then dete= rmine what portion of your worries are about decisions made and actions taken in = the past—that cannot be changed now.&nbs= p; Why worry about them—you can’t do anything about them no= w—except to confess them, if needed, and ask forgiveness. Then forget them and leave them in= the past where they belong.

Worried a= bout your health? Well, do what yo= u can to protect it—eat right and exercise—but don’t worry abou= t it. That will almost certainly make yo= ur health worse.

I donR= 17;t know if we can eliminate all our worries this way, but if we take this inventory and trust God with the things we don’t need to be worrying about, we’ll probably eliminate most of our worries—all of them= except for the things we can actually do something about today. Isn’t this what Jesus told u= s to do? “…Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)<= /p>

There you= have it. We burden our lives with concerns about the past and future, getting too preoccupied with worry to adequately address the challenges of the present—which is the only ti= me in which we can actually do anything—right now!

Try this approach. Divide your worries= into two categories: productive and unproductive. Unproductive worries are those thi= ngs in the past that we can’t change: mistakes, sins, bad decisions—th= ings that cost us, or embarrassed us, or limited our futures—and to this d= ay, cause us to ask, “What if…?

We all ha= ve some of that stuff back there. Are we going to hang on to the past in such a way that it also ruins the presen= t? No amount of worry and regret is g= oing to change the fact that those things happened. We can’t go back and change it. So worrying about it is completely unproductive! It j= ust makes you unhappy.

Unproduct= ive worry is about anything over which we have no control. This includes the future. Will I owe anything on my taxes th= is year? Some folks worry themse= lves sick over such issues. Why no= t just do your taxes and find out—then you can concern yourself with how to = pay them, but worrying is useless.

Will I ge= t a passing grade on my test? Most likely, if you study; but worrying won’t help. It’ll just keep you from abs= orbing what you should as you study because your brain is crammed too full of worry. There’s only so = much room in there, you know!

I could g= o on giving illustrations of this, but what is it in your life that worries you right n= ow? Is your fretting really going to c= hange it in any way? If the answer = is no, why not follow Jesus’ advice and stop worrying about it? Your worry is unproductive.

Having sa= id that, though, we need to realize that there are also legitimate areas of concern in each of our lives. Thinking about these and doing something about them is productive.=

“Pr= oductive worry” focuses on concerns over which we have direct control right now—this day, in fact. = You go to see the doctor, and he tells you to lose weight, lower your cholesterol, quit smoking, or whatever—do it.

Don’= ;t worry about, though—that won’t help. Pray and ask God to give you stren= gth, and will-power, and a patient, understanding family—ask Him to “lead you not into temptation and deliver you from evil”—and then each moment of each day, with the Lord’s help, do what the doctor ordered.=

Again, th= ere are many examples of eliminating worry by dealing with whatever God places = in our path daily and leaving everything else in His hands, but each of us nee= ds to decide what that issue is for us, and what we can do about it today—and we have it on good authority that that’s really all we need to concern ourselves with.

Abraham L= incoln has been in the news a lot lately. Evidently, he stayed pretty calm under pressure. This is a story President Lincoln = told: “Many years ago, when I was a young lawyer, and Illinois was little settled excep= t on her southern border, I, with other lawyers, used to ride the circuit, journeying with the Judge from county seat to county seat in quest of busin= ess.

Once, aft= er a long spell of pouring rain, which had flooded the whole country, transformi= ng small creeks into rivers, we were often stopped by those swollen streams, w= hich were with difficulty crossed. Still ahead of us was the Fox River, larger than all the rest; and we could not h= elp saying to each other, ‘if these streams give us so much trouble, how shall we get across the Fox River?’= ;

Darkness = fell before we had reached that stream; and we all stopped at a log tavern, had = our horse put out, and resolved to pass the night. Here, we were right glad to fall i= n with the Methodist Presiding Elder of the Circuit, Peter Cartwright, who rode the river in all weather, who knew its ways, and could tell us about it. So we all gathered around him, and= asked him if he knew about the crossing of Fox River.

‘O, yes,’ he replied, ‘I know all about the = Fox River. I have cr= ossed it often and understand it well; but I have one fixed rule with regard to t= he Fox River; I never cross it till I reach it.’”

Some of y= ou have heard me say, “Don’t cross the river until you get there”—well, this story is where that comes from. It’s wise advice, and it res= onates with what Jesus told us so long ago. To worry before you get to the river is unproductive. When you’re there, however, = you draw upon all the resources God has provided you with, and assured of His loving Presence and help, you cross it.

Focus on = that one issue, today’s challenge, and Jesus promises we can meet it. We can cross that river. But He also warns us that if we, instead, worry about all the things that happened in the past and all we may face in the future—let all that worry consume us, friends, and, well, we’re sunk!

Don’= ;t worry. Trust the Lord…a= nd be happy and blessed.