Beyond Worry
As part of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offered words of wisdom on the subject of worry:
You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
So, don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. – Matthew 6:25-34 NLT
When have you worried about something, and it paid off? When we read Jesus’ instruction about not worrying, sometimes we get sheepish about worrying entirely, feeling like faithless failures. Yet we know that worrying is hardwired into our personalities, and for good reason. Worrying that if you don’t write Santa might result in not getting anything Christmas morning might motivate a kid to put pen to paper. Worrying about failing a test might motivate good studying habits. Worrying about doing a good job in your employment probably makes you a better employee. Worrying about financial security might make you a better steward of your finances. Worrying about relational health with someone might make you a more attentive person to be in relationship with. Worrying about new symptoms of potential mental or physical health might motivate you to seek out professional advice.
On the other hand, some take Jesus’ advice to an extreme, taking his words out of the context of his Sermon on the Mount, and trust God to simply provide for them like God provides for the birds of the air and the lilies in the field. In extreme, God then morphs into government-based social security funded by taxes you and others have paid into over the years. For some, not worrying translates as not paying attention, not being responsible, not doing what was necessary to simply care for oneself. For some, not worrying about big problems in the world translates into a hands-off way of interacting with the world, letting it be what it will be. Sometimes we chalk it up to “God’s will.” Yet, doing nothing in the face of serious issues is a very big decision to do a very big something – letting horrors continue – because you don’t want to worry about it. Global warming has continued to rise to our own peril globally, there are more people trapped in human trafficking than ever before in history, wars continue to be waged, people continue to starve to death, and people continue to be treated with prejudice based on gender, race, sexuality, class, etc. To not worry about these things is a decision to let them continue to thrive. To not worry about such things is also to disregard other instructions from Jesus in his stump speech.
Remember that when Jesus was telling people to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and give the shirt off your back, these were forms of nonviolent resistance to people in power. These were responses to worrisome issues that needed to be addressed. People worried about their wellbeing and the wellbeing of their children for good reason. Jesus gave them tools with which to respond that helped foster change while decreasing the likelihood that they would be killed in the process.
Worry isn’t all bad. Worry leads to critically important action at times. Worry leads to thoughtful response to insure ongoing wellbeing.
Worrying can, however, rob us of life, right? When can obsess over things, ruminating too long on issues so that they begin to dominate our thoughts. Sometimes worry can lead to anxiety which can stop us in our tracks. Sometimes anxiety is debilitating, requiring counseling and perhaps prescription meds to help us cope. Sometimes the Christian tradition has shamed people for such struggles, calling people out for being faithless if they worry or struggle with anxiety. Such lack of compassion and binary judgement is, quite simply, anti-shalom and anti-Christian, isn’t it? I don’t think Jesus was
Telling people not to worry came off as encouragement to Jesus’ original audience, not punitive. Jesus was not speaking from an ivory tower where he didn’t know the struggle his peers faced – he was one of them. He knew what it was to fear mistreatment from the Roman Empire, which could get away with just about anything. He knew what it was to be brutally poor and feel the weight of responsibility to provide for his family after his father died, leaving it to him. He knew what it was like to go without a meal because they couldn’t afford it. He knew what it was like to pay oppressive taxes under threat of imprisonment if he didn’t pay. He knew what it was to worry for very good reasons. His instruction to not worry was not born from a worry-free life, but from suffering the reality of living in very worrisome times. Yet the impression of his life is that he was not ruled by worry – he was free.
Jesus’ instruction was about finding and keeping perspective, about seeing everything differently. His words were encouraging his audience to look beyond the constructs which were blinding them from the much bigger reality that was the actual reality. He called his listeners to focus on the Kingdom of God, which is ultimate reality, which is love, which is shalom, which is wellbeing, which is peace, which is life in its fullness. When we live in that space and from that space, we find ourselves actually living freely and loving prodigiously.
His advice, in short? See first the Kingdom of God, Ultimate Reality, Love, Shalom – and the experience of that reality will be yours. Swiss theologian and religious socialist Leonhard Ragaz (1868-1945) viewed Jesus’ teaching as a radical, revolutionary call to a different way of being in the world:
“The Kingdom of God is no religion but the abolishment of all religion... Jesus does not have the slightest interest in making people pious. He does not want any religious people. His sphere is not religion. What he wants is not some mystical power cut off from the rest of life; he does not want any separation at all. He does not draw lines of demarcation among religions, but rather the opposite: he tears down religious barriers.… There is nowhere a temple atmosphere, a church atmosphere, be it ever so sacred, or a mystical twilight; instead, everywhere there is God’s free sky and God’s fresh air. There is nowhere anything artistic, extravagant, or man-made, but rather something simple, natural, genuine, healthy, clear as daylight, very human and very divine. So very human and so very divine! We had better say so very human because so very divine – for this is actually the remarkable thing: here, where religion stops, we have the deep awareness of being with God. Religion ends because God is present. Everything is earthly because God has been seen in stark reality. Wherever one needs that holy, secluded, special world that is called religion, there one cannot be sure that God is near, there one needs a substitute – namely, religion. Where God is a self-evident, supremely clear, all-penetrating reality, there he can be seen in all things, can be felt in all things, can be honored in all things, can be served in all things. The world is truly his temple; therefore, the special temple falls by the wayside. All people automatically become priests; therefore, a special priesthood is not needed. All days become holy; therefore, special holy days are not needed. Every deed becomes an act of worship; therefore, worship services are no longer needed. Everything becomes holy; therefore, nothing remains that is especially holy or unholy. Religion tumbles before God. That is the revolution of Jesus, the immeasurable, still little-understood revolution.”
What do we do with this, then? It seems to me that we can drop shaming ourselves if we worry about something or someone, since worry at some levels helps us be responsible, and in many cases is an expression of our love of someone or something. If worry is robbing us of life, there are lots of practical tools that can help us manage what we’re facing. Above it all, Jesus was proclaiming that there is a different way of seeing and being in the world that allows us to find peace in the everlasting Peace that is God, love in the eternal Love that is God, and hope in the Hope that is the infinite, ever-evolving and creating Spirit that holds us all. It’s going to be hard at times. Yet Love still loves. There will be struggle and even death, but Love and Life are bigger than those things and are always present, always Presence.
So, take stock. Keep appropriately worrying about things that matter. Stay invested in life. If you need tricks or tips or professional help, don’t delay. Remember, however, that we are in something greater that is Love. Let go and trust love to buoy you through your raging seas, to guide you as a North Star, and to hold you like a loving mother.
Consider the Lilies of the Field
Christian Rossetti
Flowers preach to us if we will hear:—
The rose saith in the dewy morn:
I am most fair;
Yet all my loveliness is born
Upon a thorn.
The poppy saith amid the corn:
Let but my scarlet head appear
And I am held in scorn;
Yet juice of subtle virtue lies
Within my cup of curious dyes.
The lilies say: Behold how we
Preach without words of purity.
The violets whisper from the shade
Which their own leaves have made:
Men scent our fragrance on the air,
Yet take no heed
Of humble lessons we would read.
But not alone the fairest flowers:
The merest grass
Along the roadside where we pass,
Lichen and moss and sturdy weed,
Tell of God’s love who sends the dew,
The rain and sunshine too,
To nourish one small seed.
We Wait
A prayer from Howard Thurman
We spread before Thee, our Father, all of the mounting concerns of our lives and even as we do so we are not sure of what thou canst do about them. But there is within us the great necessity to expose the heights and the depths of our concerns to thee, whose wisdom transcends our little wisdoms, whose caring contains all the reaches of our own love, and whose mind holds all our little minds in their place.
We are concerned as we hear the tidings of the destruction and the suffering from the raging storms and winds and the snows of winter, as in combination they beat down upon thy children in other lands. The suffering, the desolation, the panic, the fear – these reach us even in the quietness.… We try to encompass in the sweep of our awareness the intimate overtones of colossal misery and frustration and hurt and pain and hate and love. One by one we might speak of our various desires. But thou knowest how far these reach and where they are limited and bounded by our ignorance or our indifference or by the intensity of the personal struggle with which we ourselves are faced.
We lay bare the personal concerns of our private lives: the decisions we must make and do not know how to make; the anxiety which we feel because of what is going on within our minds or our bodies, the outcome of which we cannot even guess. The little awareness of the little problems of our little lives mounts to overwhelming proportions when we still ourselves in thy waiting presence. We ask nothing. We wait. We wait, our Father, until at last something of thy strength becomes our strength, something of thy heart becomes our heart, something of thy forgiveness becomes our forgiveness. We wait, O God, we wait.
Stuff to think about...
1. Personal Reflection on Worry. When have you experienced worry that led to positive, responsible action? How do you know when worry is helping you, and when it’s hurting you?
2. Worry vs. Faith. How do you reconcile Jesus’ command “do not worry” with your lived experience of anxiety or concern about real-world issues? Do you think Jesus was discouraging all worry—or inviting a new way of seeing?
3. Healthy vs. Unhealthy Worry. What helps you tell the difference between healthy concern (which prompts action) and destructive worry (which paralyzes)? Have you ever moved from one to the other in a specific situation?
4. Kingdom of God Perspective. Jesus says to “seek first the Kingdom of God” as an antidote to worry. What do you think it means to live from the perspective of the Kingdom of God? How does this shape the way you respond to stress, fear, or global injustice?
5. Global & Social Concerns. The essay warns against using "don't worry" as an excuse to ignore major problems in the world (e.g., climate change, injustice, war). How can we balance trusting God with staying actively engaged in the world's brokenness? What does faithful, responsible concern look like?
6. Compassion Toward Anxiety. The essay criticizes the Christian tradition’s history of shaming people with anxiety. Have you or someone you know ever felt judged for worrying or struggling mentally/emotionally? What would it look like for the Church to embody more compassion in this area?
7. The Radical Jesus. Swiss theologian Leonhard Ragaz describes Jesus’ message as revolutionary, earthy, and anti-religious in form. What stands out to you about this view of Jesus? Does it shift how you think about faith, worship, or daily life?
8. Practical Peace. Jesus offers freedom from being ruled by worry rather than freedom from problems. What practices, habits, or beliefs help you stay centered in love and peace when life feels overwhelming?
Practical, evidence-based and spiritually rooted practices to help manage worry...
Spiritual Practices
1. Prayer & Meditation
Regular prayer helps people release burdens to God.
Centering prayer or contemplative silence can calm the mind.
Meditating on Scriptures like Matthew 6:25-34 or Psalm 23 can refocus your thoughts.
2. Breath Prayers
Short prayers linked with breathing, e.g.,
Inhale: “Be still and know…”
Exhale: “…that I am God.”
3. Journaling
Writing down worries or prayers helps clarify thoughts and feelings.
Gratitude journaling can shift focus from anxiety to appreciation.
4. Scripture Reflection
Memorizing or meditating on reassuring verses can reframe anxious thinking. Examples:
“Do not worry about tomorrow…” (Matt. 6:34)
“Cast all your anxiety on him…” (1 Peter 5:7)
“Peace I leave with you…” (John 14:27)
Emotional & Mental Health Tools
5. Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (CBT)
Identify irrational thoughts (“I’m failing,” “This will never get better”) and replace them with truthful, balanced thinking.
Ask: What’s the evidence this fear is true? What would I say to a friend in this situation?
6. Professional Counseling or Therapy
A therapist (especially one trained in anxiety treatment or trauma) can guide you in managing underlying causes and developing coping strategies.
Faith-based therapists integrate spiritual values into therapy.
7. Medication (as needed)
For chronic or debilitating anxiety, medical treatment (under a doctor’s care) can be a crucial tool—not a failure of faith.
Physical & Lifestyle Supports
8. Exercise
Regular physical movement (especially walking, yoga, swimming) reduces stress hormones and increases mood-boosting endorphins.
9. Deep Breathing or Grounding Techniques
Try the 4-7-8 breath (inhale 4 seconds, hold 7, exhale 8).
Grounding: Focus on 5 things you see, 4 you can touch, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, 1 you taste.
10. Sleep & Nutrition
Poor sleep and diet worsen anxiety. A consistent sleep routine, balanced meals, and reduced caffeine can make a big difference.
Relational & Community Support
11. Talk to Someone
Talking with a trusted friend, mentor, or small group can lighten your emotional load.
Vulnerability reduces isolation and brings healing.
12. Ask for Help
Worry often stems from trying to manage everything alone. Allow others to support you practically or emotionally.
Creative or Sensory Outlets
13. Art, Music, and Nature
Creating or listening to music, painting, gardening, or spending time in nature can calm the mind and connect you with beauty and presence.
14. Limit Media Consumption
Constant news and social media exposure can heighten anxiety. Set healthy boundaries around screen time and digital input.
Integrative Practice Example
Daily Rhythm:
Morning: Breath prayer + Scripture reflection
Midday: Walk or stretch + journal one gratitude
Evening: Turn off screens early + pray through your day before bed
Leonhard Ragaz, Signs of the Kingdom, ed. and trans. Paul Bock (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1984), 28–31.
Christina Rossetti, “Consider the Lilies of the Field,” from Goblin Market, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems (London: Macmillan 1879).
Howard Thurman, The Search for Common Ground (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1986), 26–28.