Some years ago, I was part of a large team with a mind numbingly boring task…
To relieve the boredom, we would send each other silly email attachments. That is, until we all got called in to see the big boss. Someone, not me I hasten to add, had send an email with the Mission Impossible theme tune as an attachment. These were the days before super-fast broadband connections! The IT department in London sent an email to our boss stating: “Mission Impossible, indeed!!! (use your imagination for the courser phase which was actually used), this attachment threatened to take our system down for 20 minutes”.
Simpler Times?
Since the turn of the year, it seems like the world has been on the verge of another new crisis every other day. The last couple of weeks seem to have taken this to a whole new level.
In 2022 Permacrisis, the feeling of the world economically, politically, and culturally lurching from one overlapping crisis to the next, was Collins Dictionary “word of the year”. Crises, big and small, personal and geo-political, are nothing new, it was an issue in 2022, it was an issue now, it’s probably been an issue for every year you have been alive.
History is littered with crises, and we need only take off our rose-coloured glasses to see this is the case.
The anxiety and worry which we feel in response to what is happening around us, is also nothing new. That this is nothing new is good news. It means there is an accumulation of wisdom in how to respond to crises, there is an accumulation of wisdom in how to deal with anxiety and worry.
If the accumulation of wisdom in how to deal with anxiety and worry is good news, then the best news is that Jesus knows we get anxious and worry and so talks about how we can deal with this.
Matthew 6: 25 – 34
This Sunday we will be considering Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:25 – 34. This is where he instructs his disciples not to worry / be anxious.
Anxiety and worry are what psychologists call both a trait and a state.
Trait means that for some of us we are wired in such a way, through a complex interplay of biology, history, experience, that we are more predisposed to anxious feelings and worrisome thoughts. This does not mean we cannot learn how to be less anxious or worry less, but it does mean for those for who anxiety and worry is a trait it can seem like Jesus’ words to not worry are mission impossible.
Anxiety and worry are also a state; a response to a situation or circumstance we see coming toward us (both anxiety and worry are about things which have not yet happened or may possibly happen).
I suspect that we all when facing a situation feel some level of anxiety and worry. Indeed, you could say that to feel anxiety, to worry, is to be human – we all do it.
So, is Jesus asking us to do something which is impossible? Is he asking us to be less human?
Do You Accept This Mission?
To find out the answer you’ll need to come along on Sunday, watch on the live stream, or catch up on the Podcast.
For now, please close this message before it self-destructs in 1, 2, 3, …. (only joking!)
See you Sunday.
Brodie