Rethinking “Don’t worry” in our time of unprecedented concerns
Perhaps it has become cliché to observe that we are living in unprecedented times. But the truth is that each week brings another turn of events unlike anything any of us has experienced. And so it’s only natural that some of us are feeling unsettled, or worse.
• Washington D.C. looks like a war zone, with members of the National Guard sleeping in the Capitol’s hallways as concrete barricades and razor wire surround every major building.
• Calls for racial justice persist and will move to the headlines again next week as a divided America observes Martin Luther King Day.
• Covid confusion continues as vaccinations happen too slowly.
• Workers grow weary of working from home.
• And parents, teachers, and students continue to cope with constantly changing decisions about how to have school in a pandemic.
Against this tapestry of angst, some Christians feel guilty if they feel bad. And some cope by mustering what I consider a superficial sentiment of “Don’t worry. God’s got this. Just hold on. You’ll see how everything turns out right.”
I’m not writing to discourage or to suggest that God is not in control. Just the opposite, in fact. But I’ve been thinking afresh about what that means, after some brief Bible reading this week.
One protected, many killed
I was using a resource that observed Epiphany, the Christian tradition of celebrating after Christmas the wise men’s visit to the home of the toddler Jesus. As I read the story in Matthew 2, I was struck again by God’s extraordinary intervention that led Joseph and Mary, again and again, away from evil and into safe places outside the jurisdiction of Herod and his wicked son Archelaus. Our all-powerful God protected Jesus so his work on earth could be completed.
But the paranoid Herod was unnerved by the wise men’s report of a king in Bethlehem. So he ordered his soldiers to kill all the boys there who were two years old and younger.
The Bible reports this, almost in passing. But this week I lingered with the reality of the slaughter.
This week I lingered with the reality of the slaughter.
Think of the two-year-olds in your life—your delight in them, your hopes for them, your devotion to them. Try to picture the state’s army rushing your house to kill them at bloody sword point before your eyes. And then imagine a rabbi—or a television preacher or a sampler-embroidering soccer mom—telling you, “Don’t worry. God’s got this. You’ll see how everything turns out right.”
The mothers of those boys, all of them God’s chosen people, obedient and faithful worshipers of the one true God, faced a grief most of us have never known. And their God just let it happen.
Hear them sobbing in despair and lifting tear-stained faces to ask, “Why? What have I done to deserve this? How can I believe in you if you allow this to happen?” And remember how you or someone you know has asked the very same questions about our loss in this lifetime.
Focus on today, not tomorrow
As I continued reading through the Gospel of Matthew, soon I came across the words of Jesus recorded in chapter 6, just a few pages after the above narrative. “Don’t worry about tomorrow,” Jesus said, “for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
Jesus, born amid hatred, fear, and bloodshed, has now grown up to say, “Don’t worry.” How can this be?
The beginning of the answer comes in what Jesus did not say. His words were not, “Don’t worry, your troubles are over.” Or “Don’t worry, everything will turn out OK for you.” Yes, he had reminded his hearers that God would always provide their most basic needs, clothing and food and shelter. We can take his teaching to heart and trust he will give us what we need tomorrow, too.
But this doesn’t mean all cares will evaporate, all pain will cease, all disease will disappear, all conflict will stop, all injustice will be handled. Tomorrow we will still face the evil we see everywhere, in a world where God allows Satan to run rampant. But we need not worry about all the what-ifs. Just as God guides and sustains today, he will provide for tomorrow.
It’s helpful to remember that Jesus told us not to worry, even as he fully understood the suffering he himself would soon endure. He knew the shame and agony of the cross was before him, but he gave himself to the Father’s work he could accomplish today.
Present problems, greater purpose
We don’t have the foreknowledge of God, of course. And trapped by time, we may never understand what God is doing, even in the midst of everything wrong that confronts us in any moment.
This means that, regardless of the oppression, we need not lose heart—not because our situation may get easier, but because God will walk with us through whatever we’re facing. He will allow our suffering to teach us, to temper us, to prepare us for future opportunities. But he will not always take our troubles away. In fact, Jesus told his disciples, “In this world you will have trouble.” We know what he promised them is our lot, too.
And so, we keep our eyes open, looking to see how God is using our present problems to achieve his greater purpose. The confusing path we’re walking may not lead to a conclusion we can cross-stitch on a sampler. But with God’s help, we can keep taking the next step, knowing that’s really all he requires of us.
Photos by cottonbro and Wallace Chuck from Pexels