more than food, and the body more than clothes.’ It is as if Jesus deliberately set out to give the writer of Ecclesiastes a slap in the face: ‘How dare you be so cynical!’ And I’ll bet he would say the same to the warehouse guy as well.
| [Jesus said,] ‘Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Luke 12.25–31 |
| Pardon me and pray for me. Pray for me, I say. For I am sometimes so fearful, that I would creep into a mouse-hole. Sometimes God doth visit me again with his comfort. So he cometh and goeth. Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, in a letter from prison to his friend Bishop Nicholas Ridley, shortly before he was put to death for his faith, 1485–1555 |
Anxiety is going to be a fact of life, but there are two ways of responding to it. One of them is: ‘Blot it out with whatever you can find – in a bottle, in a fridge, in a shopping mall, or by working so hard that you never have to deal with it.’ That’s the cynic’s way.
Alternatively, there is the way of Jesus, who says, ‘My method won’t blot out worry. Or magic it away. But I can give you a secure way of dealing with it. Do you want to know more?’
| I worry until midnight, and from then on I let God worry. Luigi Guanella, founder of an Italian monastic order, 1842–1915 |
Of course we want to know more! Jesus gives us three straightforward reasons why we shouldn’t worry. The first one that it’s pointless. Jesus, though, said it rather more poetically: ‘Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?’
The average English woman lives 709,560 hours. If you spend all the waking ones worrying that this is not enough, will you live one more? Not a chance! So do something more practical than worrying. If you are lying in bed unable to sleep, form a plan for the next day. When you’ve made up your mind what you are going to do, tell yourself that you have done everything you can and that you will just have to hand over to God the things that are out of your control. There is no guarantee that this will get you to sleep, but it makes far better use of the boring, wakeful hours than letting anxiety spin out of control.
The second reason is that worrying shows a lack of faith in God’s ability to provide. Once again, Jesus’ version is wonderfully memorable: ‘If God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you.’
| God of every living thing, I don’t ask you to blot out everything that makes me anxious. But I do ask for reassurance that you are very close to me in this worrisome world. Amen. |
Tell yourself, when you are full of anxiety, that this is what you are a Christian for. Moments like these! This is the time when people who have no faith have nothing to turn to. But in contrast, it is the time when all those minutes you have spent in prayer with God, added up over 709,560 hours, will strengthen you in a unique way. So assert at moments of high anxiety: ‘I may be worried, but in God I have something precious – and now is the time to call on it to sustain me.’
And the third reason: if you are a Christian, there is no need to be preoccupied with the same things that the rest of the world frets over: ‘Do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things.’
I remember the first time that the very different way Christians can think came home to me. While I worked in that warehouse all my friends were passing their driving tests and practising their negotiating skills by getting their parents to lend them a car on a Saturday night. I recall one of my friends coming out of my home and finding that, while his mother’s car was parked, someone had dented the wing. So there was great deal of worrying that evening, and I went with him in case breaking the news turned out to be traumatic. But his mother’s first words were: ‘It’s a thing, not a person. First of all tell me whether you are OK.’ And I can remember thinking, ‘Good grief! That’s how Christians prioritize matters. That’s not what I expected at all.’
It still stays with me, that happy memory. It’s one of the many, many reasons I now follow Jesus. The logic of his reassurance still speaks to me across 2,000 years (that’s 17,520,000 hours). God’s care for all I can see – flowers, birds, fields – gives me confidence for all I can’t see. He is at work in that as well. So master your worries!
| Be happy! Think back ten years. What age were you? What were the things that were worrying you most then? And what were you most worried about five years ago? And twelve months ago? What are your feelings today about the anxieties you had then? Now make a list of the things that worry you most now. Be frank with God about how you feel about them, and then wait to see whether God will be equally frank with you. |
Be Happy! Day 4
Get real about love
| If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13.1–3 |
It’s just after Easter in Tenerife. I’m on holiday with my gorgeous godchildren and their family. Mum and Dad have gone to a meeting because some chav in a Primark suit is trying to sell them a timeshare. So I’ve had seven-year-old Anna and five-year-old William since breakfast. We’ve done the mini golf, we’ve done the swimming pool, and now we’re going for a walk along the beach. And a charming little voice floats up: ‘I do love you, Peter.’
I reply, ‘Oh what a lovely thing to say! I love you too. Both of you!’
There is a brief silence, and then I hear, ‘Have you noticed that the beach shop is selling chocolate ice creams?’
The little rascal – I nearly fell for it!
It gave me a problem, because Anna and William have a strict holiday rule about having only one ice cream per day. Anna is the biggest girl in her class, but William is a minute scrap for his age. When they are playing on the beach they look a comical pair. William doesn’t look like her brother; he looks like her lunch. So you can understand why Mum and Dad want to make sure they eat well and wisely. It makes me miserable to say no to such terrific children. But I think it is genuinely more loving to stick to the rule than to sneak in an extra Cornetto.
Sometimes we say I love you, and it has nothing to do with authentic love. Sometimes we say, ‘You can’t have what you want,’ and we do it because we love the person. Love is so complicated. We have got used to love having a price-tag attached to it. We expect something back.
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Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always
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