Today’s passage is Luke 12:22-34. Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about food and clothes because God knows what they need and he will provide as well for them as he does for lilies and ravens. Life is more than food and clothes. Seek the kingdom of heaven. Store up your treasure in heaven, he says, where things don’t rust and thieves don’t steal. Your treasure is where your heart is.
Why does Jesus say not to work so hard?
What is treasure in heaven?
When I was a teacher I had to provide a plan for each class I taught.
I didn’t worry a lot about those plans because I trusted myself to do the job.
Eventually I lost my job.
When I was a husband and father I had few plans but a lot of daydreams.
I didn’t pay attention to my circumstances and didn’t assess them realistically.
I lived on assumptions.
I assumed things would take care of themselves and generally get better.
The result was a marriage and a family that collapsed.
I am a principal now and I worry a lot because I want to do a good job.
When I look at my past work, I don’t see a lot of worldly or spiritual success, so I’m a lot more cautious now and I do something I never did before:
I invite God into every decision I make through prayer.
I do this because I worry and I don’t have a lot of faith in myself anymore.
And that’s not such a bad thing I begin to discover. I pray for God’s plan not my plan.
On a day to day basis, that tends to work fine. But because I need to make multi-year plans, I run into worry.
What I need is the long term vision that can then be attended to on a daily basis so I don’t worry so much.
Jesus says the lilies “do not labor or spin” but they’re dressed beautifully (27).
The implication is that too much work and worry will not produce anything.
He says, in fact, that worrying is unproductive: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”(25).
If I can’t extend my longevity by worrying, then what makes me think that worrying about my plans for anything will make them better?
So how do I simplify?
Jesus says to seek the Kingdom of Heaven (31) and put my treasure there because that’s where my heart is (34).
Worrying is clearly not a treasure but rather gets in the way of seeking the kingdom because it keeps me focused on worldly issues.
Worry equals world.
Although God’s creation is amazingly, unbelievably and mind-numbingly complex, it’s also astoundingly and beautifully simple.
Today’s passage tells me that my life is like that too.
I complicate it and frustrate it, however, with my sin.
The tangled complication my life caused by my adultery and sexual immorality is a master lesson to me.
The kingdom of heaven is found in marriage fidelity and speaking words of love to my wife.
When God reveals a long term plan, as he did with our building a house, then we trust to that vision and plan with his help.
The kingdom of heaven at school is found in seeking to help my teachers see and appreciate their place in the school, listen to their thoughts and feelings and encourage their actions in a unified plan that God has shown me through prayer and diligent QT.
The kingdom is not found in self-righteously keeping score or worrying about power.
My treasure is in simplicity, in the simple salvation God has given me, cutting through the Gordian knot of my sin.
Application: Stop worrying about permutations I can’t see or control and simply go get my visa extended.
Lord, help my see that no matter how big the problem is it’s always made up of simple parts and that I can trust you to give me what I need to work on the little parts.
