Most heart attacks occur between 8 and 10 on Monday mornings, leading doctors to believe it’s not diet or exercise that are to blame as much as it is stress and worry about what’s ahead.

The fear surrounding the things we care most about – our kids, our homes, and our lives – fuel a life-threatening cocktail that we’re surprisingly willing to drink again and again and again.

This primal activity, worry, be it an addiction, a disease, or simply part of the human condition, was something Jesus was keenly attuned to, as the single most common piece of advice He offered his followers was, ‘Don’t worry.’

But Jesus doesn’t just leave it at that. In this Sunday’s Gospel He makes several other points about handling fear:

First, what good is worrying, because everything’s going to be OK. We’re in God’s hands and there is nothing that can take us from there. God cares deeply and intimately about birds and flowers - even, and especially, us.

Second, worrying is not worth it. All the worrying in the world won’t add one hour to our lives, in fact it is more likely to take hours and hours and hours from our lives.

Third, keep things in perspective. Most of our worries pale in comparison to those of the billions of people living in hunger, sickness, and homelessness – that we are challenged to do something about. This is what striving for the Kingdom is about, bringing God’s heaven to so many people who are living in… another place.

And finally, with this in mind, who’s got time to worry? Birds don’t, lilies don’t, and when we get busy with everything we called to be and do, we find that worrying is something we just don’t want to pay for.

The famous slogan is ‘you are what you eat’ –
The famous anxiety is that we become what we worry about-
And the famous antidote is that Jesus loves and cares for us more than we’ll ever know, uniquely calling us to do things only we can do, which leaves very little time or reason to worry.

Reading:
Faith for the Future –Harvey Cox
Fasting – Scot McKnight
Matthew 1-13 - Donald Hagner