Introduction:

This way of Jesus addresses the root causes of the majority of unnecessary unhappiness.

First we are coaxed out of unnecessary anxiety about the future.  A state of perpetual worry does not leave us free to enjoy the moment or to be compassionate to others.  Worry uses all our strength and keeps us unhappy.

For those who do not believe in a God or that God will provide what we need, the message to avoid unnecessary worry about the future is still relevant.

Next we are coaxed out of looking backward.  If we are looking backward, either in guilt or remorse, or anger at an offense, we are not free to be in the present or to be compassionate to others.

 

The Sayings of Jesus:

Do Not Worry

Matthew 6: 25-34

25 This is why I say to you: Do not be anxious about your life — what you can get to eat or drink, or about your body — what you can get to wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

26 Look at the wild birds — they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and yet your heavenly Father feeds them! Aren’t you more precious than they?

27 But which of you, by being anxious, can prolong their life a single moment?

28 And why be anxious about clothing? Study the wild lilies, and how they grow. They neither toil nor spin; 29 yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his splendor was not robed like one of these. 30 If God so clothes even the grass of the field, which is living today and tomorrow will be thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?

31 Do not then ask anxiously ‘What can we get to eat?’ or ‘What can we get to drink?’ or ‘What can we get to wear?’ 32 All these are the things for which the nations are seeking, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

33 But first seek his kingdom and the righteousness that he requires, and then all these things will be added for you.

34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own anxieties. Every day has trouble enough of its own.

Looking Backward

Luke 9: 62

62 Jesus answered: “No one who looks back, after putting their hand to the plow, is fitted for the kingdom of God.”

 

Stories and Commentary:

Looking Backward

When I first read the line “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” I thought “How dreadful to be punished so harshly just for looking backward”.

Then an “aha” moment came to me.  The kingdom of heaven is being in the moment.  Looking backwards often takes us out of the moment in an unhappy way.  When we are regretting the past or feeling guilty about a past event we are no longer in the moment.  We are no longer happy.  We are no longer available to others around us.

I was sailing one day in a gentle wind and lying back looking at the clouds.  A sudden gust of wind from the opposite direction tipped my boat over.  By the time I had righted the boat I realized I had lost my centerboard.

Normally I would have been miserable and endlessly scolded myself for being so careless.  But instead I remembered this short saying: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”  I decided my next adventure would be looking for the centerboard.  I spent a delightful two hours walking the shore looking (and finally found it).

 

On Anxiety:

The goal is not to reduce the level of stress to zero.  There is a wonderful book called “The Joy of Stress”.  The author argues that life comes with hardships.  Anxiety and stress are healthy and helpful responses to these hardships.  They energize us to deal with the hardship.

The Mother Goose Rhyme or Serenity Prayer help to focus us.

For every ailment under the sun

There is a remedy or there is none

If there be one try to find it;

If there be none, never mind it.

Mother Goose

 

Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

 

Dealing with criticism:

Any criticism, either directed at us by others or self-criticism, is best handled not by defending ourselves but by agreeing with the criticism.  At the same time put the subject of the criticism in a broad perspective.

For example, the broad perspective for a criticism of character would be Mother Theresa at the high end and Hitler at the low end.  Comparing myself to Mother Theresa, I can agree that I am not a generous or helping person.

Note that agreeing with a criticism does not commit us to any course of action.  We may say: “Yes I am a stingy person (compared to Mother Theresa), but I am not going to lend you my car.”

The effect of agreeing to a criticism is powerful.  Agreeing removes the sting of the criticism and at the same time silences the critic.

(adapted from the book “When I Say No, I Feel Guilty”  by Manuel J. Smith.  The author taught Peace Core workers how to successfully deal with the devastating criticism they were receiving in the villages they traveled to.)