One Step at a Time

 

[Jesus said] “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:25-33 ESV).

 

Whenever I talk about taking responsibility for joy I am usually answered with something like, “But, I’m just a natural worrier.” Even for those who have something to be anxious about, the same answer works: Concentrate on what you can control. This will allow you to appropriate the joy Jesus is talking about in our reading today. It requires that we recognize an essential principle of life. We must learn to take life one step at a time.

 

The picture I’ve attached today might seem a little odd at first thought. Let me explain a bit. This is our Christmas tree this year. We always add one or two ornaments each year. Some of them commemorate some trip or place we have visited during the year. You can imagine that after nearly 53 years of this practice, we’ve become very selective about duplicates. I’m not sure how many ornaments there are on the tree, though I know it took me about four hours to sift through all the decorations to get what I thought would be the perfect combination for this year. Even the stuffed animals and toys placed around the bottom had to be culled a bit this year.

 

When I first began the task, it looked daunting to say the least. Now, I am very aware this task is not one that could be classified as “challenging.” In fact, it is trivial compared to other things that we all face in our lives. However, the principle is the same. How do you get from a bare tree to the “perfect” decorated effect? Well, like all of life, you do it one piece at a time… one step at a time.

 

This is certainly what Jesus meant when He told us not to be anxious about tomorrow. God has got every detail of our journey in His hands. He won’t let you down. Go ahead and light the candle of joy this week with that confidence!