Just TYPING that sentence was painful.
This boy can’t be 20. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he would clinch his fists, tighten his muscles until his head and neck trembled and proclaim, “I’m skee-ud,” not because he was frightened, but because he knew it would make us laugh?
This boy can’t be 20. Wasn’t it just yesterday that, dressed as Harry Potter, complete with his Gryffindor scarf and round spectacles, he knocked on doors and rang bells in hopes of filling his bag with Halloween candy?
This boy can’t be 20. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he found my dad’s old Yamaha six-string, asked for lessons and awakened the passion of his life?
This boy can’t be 20. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he took a rope swing into Armuchee Creek and emerged with his broken left leg helplessly dangling?
This boy can’t be 20. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we dropped him, smiling and confident, in Nashville for his freshman year of college?
These 20 years passed far too quickly. I can close my eyes and immediately find myself in the delivery room, worried about my wife and anxious to meet my son.
I think about all the worried and anxious moments I have spent over these past 20 years, all the potential for calamity and the odds that something horrible could happen. Sometimes they did: the tib-fib break, the hatchet to the leg, the wreck or the seizure, but in every case, he—we—made it through.
Many more times, there was joy, celebration, laughter, tears, happiness, excitement and love.
I realize now that I gained nothing from the worry or anxiousness. I didn’t prevent anything bad things from happen. It didn’t cause any good things to happen. It didn’t hasten any process, nor did it bring financial reward. If I could go back and replace each one of those moments of worry with seeking God first, I can’t even begin to believe what life would be like now.
“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.” Matthew 6:25-34
Don’t waste time worrying. Instead seek God first, and enjoy every moment, the big, the little, the good and the bad. I can’t guarantee that in 20 years everything will be perfect, but I can guarantee that whether you worry or not, 20 years will pass. I can promise you that whether you worry or not, birthdays will come and go, people will enter and leave your life, there will be sickness and there will be healing. I can assure you that worry will slow you down, distract you and keep you from making progress. I can assure you that if you worry, you will miss out on a rich, wonderful life filled with love for someone, like my boy, who inspires you to love.
I realize now that I gained nothing from the worry or anxiousness. I didn’t prevent anything bad things from happen. It didn’t cause any good things to happen. It didn’t hasten any process, nor did it bring financial reward. If I could go back and replace each one of those moments of worry with seeking God first, I can’t even begin to believe what life would be like now.
“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.” Matthew 6:25-34
Don’t waste time worrying. Instead seek God first, and enjoy every moment, the big, the little, the good and the bad. I can’t guarantee that in 20 years everything will be perfect, but I can guarantee that whether you worry or not, 20 years will pass. I can promise you that whether you worry or not, birthdays will come and go, people will enter and leave your life, there will be sickness and there will be healing. I can assure you that worry will slow you down, distract you and keep you from making progress. I can assure you that if you worry, you will miss out on a rich, wonderful life filled with love for someone, like my boy, who inspires you to love.
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