How easy following this command would be if we could just decide, once and for all, to stop worrying about the world and its demands; if, having pledged ourselves to Jesus, we could just forget about the things that used to obsess us. But answering the call is never this easy. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the pull of desire and hunger and lust—these are recurring tides, always lapping at our shores. If we don’t allow the Spirit of God to rise up against them, they’ll come flooding in.

Jesus is telling us to be careful about one thing only: our relationship to him. Common sense shouts that this is ridiculous, that we must think about what we’re going to eat and drink and wear. Jesus says we must not. Beware of thinking that Jesus’s words don’t apply to your particular circumstances, that he doesn’t understand what you’re going through right now. Jesus understands your circumstances better than you do, and he says you must not make these things the central concern of your life. Whenever there’s a competition, put your relationship to God first.

“Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). How much trouble has begun to threaten you today? What mean little imps have been looking in and saying, “What are you going to do next month, next summer, next year?” “Do not be anxious,” Paul tells us (Philippians 4:6). Look again, and think, drawing your awareness to the “much more” of your heavenly Father: “Will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30).

Wisdom from Oswald

Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R