Don't Worry about Tomorrow

Don't worry about tomorrow... each day has enough trouble of its own!
Are these words wise advice? Dark humor? A dry observation on daily life?
They were spoken by a Jew named Jesus, from Nazareth, about 2,000 years ago. For those who consider him to have been a wise teacher, they're worth thinking about. For those who consider him Lord, they're to be understood, and - properly contextualized - be followed.



Don't worry about tomorrow... each day has enough trouble of its own!
Some of us don't worry about tomorrow, thinking "I've always managed with whatever life has thrown at me so far, I'm sure I can take whatever comes next!"
This kind of statement displays an overblown view of our ability to cope. There are definitely some things we cannot handle. Despite what we see in the movies, the right kind of torture will eventually break anyone. Waterboarding - simulated drowning - has been shown to break even the toughest people in less than a minute, not necessarily getting them to tell the truth, but to say whatever they think will get the torturer to stop.
"But God will be with me!" Yes, and God was with Jesus, and Luke tells us Jesus cried out in anguish and his sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground.
Jesus doesn't mean that our future is guaranteed to be agony-free.

Don't worry about tomorrow... each day has enough trouble of its own!
"I'm not worried about myself, just about my kids."
My mother was a worry-wart, doing everything she could to keep my sisters and me far away from any possible danger. Sometimes we may be tempted to excuse our worry by calling it "love" - "I just love my children so much, I have to make sure they're all right." It's important to realize that this kind of love, the love I have for my children, is still really about me. It's a normal and appropriate emotion, but it's clearly about how important my children are to me. From an outside perspective, my children are not magically more important than anyone else's; if I'm worrying about my kids, it's still self-centered behavior.
Jesus doesn't say that it's OK to worry as long as it's about other people.

So what does he mean?

Don't worry about tomorrow... each day has enough trouble of its own!
As a start, I think Jesus is telling us "don't be controlled by anxiety over the future." He doesn't mean completely ignore the future: he makes plans with forethought (for example, to head to Jerusalem where he anticipated crucifixion). But sometimes we think we can control the future, or that we can plan for all possible contingencies. When we suddenly find we can't control it - when we lose some powers we took for granted, like freedom of movement and availability of toilet paper - anxiety can start to build. Jesus wants us to let go of that false feeling of control of the future, and focus on the actions we can take in the present.

Anxiety is rarely our friend. It's a built-in emotional response when we sense imminent danger, and it floods our bodies with a range of hormones, most notably adrenaline. This was a great reaction for our long-ago ancestors: when they realized a saber-tooth tiger was around the corner, their brain said "Get ready to fight! Or maybe run away! Or maybe run for friends!" But for people living in developed areas, most of our dangers today don't require running or fighting.
Jesus knows that anxiety is bad for our reasoning, our feelings, and our physical health. It can still have a purpose: if we're paying attention to our emotional state, anxiety lets us know that some part of our mind thinks there is danger ahead. When you feel anxious, see if you can determine what you're afraid of - and then calm down. Let go of the fear to the extent that you are able - we'll look at some ways to do this in a future post - and choose a way to deal with the anxiety itself. There are two basic approaches:

1. Use the mind to stop the anxiety response. Meditation, a technique used for millennia in many cultures (including in the Bible), is a key tool in stopping the response. If you have experience with meditation then I encourage you to use it, even a simple 30 second deep breathing exercise, as soon as you detect anxiety in your self. If you've never meditated before, Headspace  is an excellent phone app to teach you the basics. The first ten lessons are free, and the tenth - a simple calming meditation of three to ten minutes - can be repeated as often as you like.
2. Use the energy the anxiety is giving you. You probably don't want to fight a tiger, but you can go for a walk or run (check in your area, but most "stay at home" areas allow daily outdoor exercise as long as you practice physical distance), or clean house, or build a project, or do calisthenics. 

Most importantly, don't try to "solve" the fear while you're still feeling anxious. If you do, then thinking about the future possible danger will simply increase your anxiety response. You need to fool your brain into thinking the danger is past; at that point, some rational (read: limited) planning might be useful.

Don't worry about tomorrow... each day has enough trouble of its own!
At this point you may be thinking "but it makes sense to worry - the danger is real!" Yes, the danger may well be real, but worrying won't fix the fear, nor the danger. Again, we'll look at some ways to let go of the fear in a future; first I invite you to believe that the worry itself isn't helpful.  "Which of you, through worry, is able to add even an hour to your life? Since you don't have power over this smallest thing, why do you worry about the rest?" (Jesus, in Luke 12:25)
Letting go of anxiety over the future gives you the freedom to concentrate on today. The farther we look into the future, the less certain our projection comes, and the more unmanageable our planning becomes. The present, however, is a different story. It is generally not to difficult to find a good choice right now, something to do (or way to be) that is loving to God, yourself, and others. And when we feel anxious about the right now, we can act - right now - to do something about it. After all, each day has enough trouble of its own.