From A Worried Soul

“Here’s a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don’t worry, be happy

In every life we have some trouble

But when you worry you make it double

Don’t worry, be happy now.”

Bobby McFerren’s lyrics are gospel!  Jesus says, “Don’t worry” in the sixth chapter of Matthew’s gospel.  I’m not sure he says, “Be happy,” but he certainly says, “Trust God to take care of everything.” Or does he?  “Don’t be anxious,” Jesus says.  But doesn’t everyone feel a little anxious on occasion?  It seems to be a normal emotion.  Is being “anxious” the same as worrying?  Most dictionaries seem to say they are the same.  So Jesus admonishes us:  Don’t be anxious or worry about what you will drink or eat.  Don’t be anxious or worry about having clothes to wear. Don’t fret about your height, you can’t do anything about it.  Look at the lilies of the field—how beautiful—they don’t work and they don’t spin yet their beauty surpasses the splendors of Solomon. Life is more than food and the body more than clothing.  Look at the birds of the air:  they don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet they are fed. You are far more valuable than the birds.  Don’t worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will look after itself.  Plus, today has enough troubles of its own.

Does this mean people of faith won’t worry or shouldn’t worry?  Does Jesus mean we shouldn’t work or take responsibility to get what we need and our families need to live?  If you’ve got Jesus, or Jesus has got you,  does that mean:  “Don’t worry, be happy?”

Jesus talks about a good many subjects in the sixth chapter of Matthew’s gospel and all those “teachings” should be considered together.  After all, the Bible was not originally ordered in  “chapter and verse.”  The Bible was divided  into chapter and verse by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1227 and the Wycliffe Bible of 1382 was the first Bible to use the pattern.  I’m quite sure the Archbishop had no idea how his  good idea or design of “chapters and verses” would backfire through the use of  “proof texts” (verses taken out of context to prove a point) and thus causing a widespread distortion of the biblical story.

I worry and I’m sure you worry.  We worry about many things.  It seems to me to be a normal emotion and I think Jesus means for us to be “normal” in that sense.  I’ve never known a person who didn’t worry!  Would the elimination of worry make one happy?  I doubt it, but I’ll let you worry that out for yourself.