A Non-Anxious Presence (Tim LeCroy)

With my family in St. Louis

With my family in St. Louis

This is a nerve-racking time. As a pastor I spent hours and hours the week of March 8 making plans for a safe worship service. But by the end of the day that Sunday, March 15, all that labor was obsolete. I spent the following week getting up to speed on live streaming and pulling off our first ever digital worship service for our folks at home. Throughout this time, I had to make countless decisions, big and small. It left me exhausted.  

I now find myself constantly checking my New York Times app for the latest numbers, declarations, and congressional activity. Then I switch to a local news website to find the latest local information. Then I check my email and Facebook. Then I’m compelled to do it over again. It’s the digital loop of the anxious person.

Maybe you’ve felt something similar over the past four weeks.

There’s a lot to be anxious about: infection rates spreading, people dying, and major institutions shutting down. How will we keep our work going or meet our responsibilities? How will we continue to care for, serve, and educate those under our charge? Will there be a disruption in the financial provision of my family? What if someone I love gets sick? What if I get sick?

Nerve-racking indeed. 

 A certain level of anxiety serves a purpose to keep us sharp and attentive to what needs to be done. But too much anxiety is destructive. Increased anxiety is a peril of our time in general, and in a moment like this it rises to a fever pitch.

When this all began to ramp up in our community I led my staff through Matthew chapter 6. In the midst of his programmatic discourse called “The Sermon on the Mount” Jesus says these refreshing words (verses 25-34):

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. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

At first glance, what Jesus is saying seems like utter nonsense. A great parody, put on by the British comedy show This Morning With Richard Not Judy, reveals what many of us might be thinking. In the skit a skeptical Matthew challenges the notion that we can do nothing and expect to be provided for. He quips, “What are you saying, we don’t need to go to work, all we need to do is be like a lily, go out in the field and lie naked? And then God’s gonna just automatically give us food and clothes, is He? It doesn’t make any sense what you’re saying. The reason a lily doesn’t need to go out to work is because it gets food and nutrients from the soil, from photosynthesis! But I can’t do that can I? I haven’t got any roots. I haven’t got any chlorophyll in me have I? I’m not magic.”

Maybe we share this fictional Matthew’s skepticism. Trusting in God is not always such a simple prospect. 

Jesus is of course not saying we should do nothing and expect God’s provision. All throughout the scriptures, Jesus’ teaching included, hard work and preparation are lauded. Solomon writes in Proverbs, “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest,” (Prov. 6:6-8 ESV). In Matthew 25 Jesus praises hard work and preparation in his “Parable of the Talents.” Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat,” (2 Thess. 3:10 ESV).

What Christ is advocating, and strongly, is that while we work and do our due diligence, we trust in our heavenly Father. “The Father knows that you need them all,” he says. So we prepare. We take precautions. We love and serve well. We do our best. But at the end of the day, we lay it down and trust in his sovereign governance of all things. “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble,” he says; do what you can today, but leave the results to God. Nothing more can be gained by giving ourselves over to anxiety. Anxiety adds not a single hour to our days or an inch to our height.*

In all these situations Jesus demonstrated a non-anxious presence. He exuded wisdom, love, and strength. He was prepared. He worked hard. But he also rested. He took time to pray and to recharge. He trusted his heavenly Father.

The famous hymn “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” concludes with these words: His eye is on the sparrow. And I know He watches me. Those words come from this passage, “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?”

Are you not of more value than sparrows? Yes! If He cares for them, how much more does he care for you?

His eye is on the sparrow; I know he watches me.    

Tim LeCroy is a ministry partner of The Carver Project and senior pastor of Grace and Peace Fellowship in St. Louis.

Further Reading

* A possible translation of vs. 27 is “can add an inch to your stature.” That translation would add rhetorical punch to what Jesus is saying. One can envision adding an hour to one’s life through anxious preparation. But one cannot add an inch to your height be being anxious!

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