by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

Readings

Matthew 6:24-34

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

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The idea that we should “stop and smell the roses” is an ancient and popularly expressed one, and yet, it can be incredibly difficult to take it to heart! Many of our religions and spiritualities tell us this in a variety of commanding and detailed ways – expressing how we should rely on God(dess) and our own God-given present awareness to navigate our days and not get ahead of ourselves. But how can we lean into this state of mind when there’s so much to plan and do, and is it actually worth striving to follow such a radical approach to life? Well, to start to answer this we must ask ourselves, “do I enjoy being anxious and yearning for the future, or would I rather find peace and a sense of wholeness today?”  

Believe it or not, as we reflect on ourselves we might start to think that part of us enjoys being anxious! How else can we explain, even after much meditative letting go, the worries and anxieties that creep in? Well, there’s actually a lot of ingrained fear that we foster and retain from our societal and familial upbringing that doesn’t fade at the drop of a hat! So, we have to be patient with ourselves, and accept that yes, my anxiety may take time to dissipate and may be rooted in more things than I know.

For one, understanding that we should let go of our “worry of the ‘morrow,” like any spiritual truth, takes real effort to entirely ingrain into our being. We must often listen to our spiritual insight as to where the anxieties are truly grounded in – from our childhood interactions with friends and family, to our current habits that pull us away from engaging healthily with ourselves and others. As we learn from these reflections, and let go of continuously ruminating about them, we come to learn from even our hardest moments, finding compassion and light, and find perhaps some truth in the idea that “everything eventually works for the good.” This also invites us to let go of thoughts and habits that don’t serve and to become more attuned to the Lord’s loving presence and will for us.

Beyond this, it really does just take time and effort to let go of habitual worrying – relaxing our minds and bodies, clearing our head, and letting go of the endless circling of thoughts and affections that we return again and again to. And to even begin this effort takes a realization that worrying about things doesn’t really help us get the important things in life done, and to the extent that it does, it’s at the expense of living into the peace and light of Divinity in our own present awareness. Indeed, both Christ and Buddhist scriptures tell us that if we let go of worry and distracted thinking we will still retain wisdom, good timing, and discernment, in fact, we’ll find it to be ever greater than before (even if it doesn’t fit the ingrained rhythm of our past anxious insights).

So, that’s a big part of releasing worry: leaning into our God-given meditative, open awareness. This present awareness centres on the peace within and allows anxious, desirous, and distracted thinking to rise and fall, without feeling the need to follow it. Further, it helps us to remember the deep truths of life – that God (known by many names) is with us, cares for us, and has a will for our lives. It reminds us that we are eternal since it centres on the thing that makes up eternity: a living, present awareness. And as this present awareness accepts that not all things can be worried about, dissected, and ruminated upon, it accepts and embodies the mystery and transcendence of both life and the Creator, and finds that it is more in line with the flow of our personal and collective journeys. And finally, since it allows our minds to no longer compare, divide, and compete, we find the deep truth of our oneness with all things, coming to love our neighbors as ourselves and seeing that God is one with us in all of our diversity, and that there’s no reason to fear.

All of these concepts Jesus expresses, and we can hear God telling us through many religious texts in one way or another. Worry-free, present awareness also helps us to engage lovingly and mercifully with our family – not missing the little things in life. It gives us fortitude and strength to embrace whatever is going on with a wideness and fullness of Spirit, not worrying about our reputation or our ambitions and realizing that we have everything worthwhile already and cannot truly lose it. It allows for a village-mindset, something much needed in these scarcity-oriented, hoarding and competitive times.

Christ tells us that heaven is within us, but when we miss it we must rediscover it. The peaceful state of our intrinsic consciousness is always there, but we can often become distracted within it (missing the forest for the trees and the sky for the clouds).  Today, may we let go of our circling worries, conceptual comparisons, lusts, self-judgments, and competitive spirit, and find that all of our minds are like a spiritual sky, full of the light and warmth and peace of God.

It can seem tough to lean into these practices that help us ease our minds, but as Christ says, “My burden is light.” Before Jesus’ crucifixion, we see Christ himself striving to stay present to the will of God, his intrinsic peace, and his own destiny in the hardest of times – struggling as he foresees deep pain and temptation for himself and others, and turning to prayerful meditation for greater comfort, clarity, and to centre his heart on God’s will and the moment.

We even see on the cross him continuously turning to prayerful scripture in the process of expressing his grief and feelings of isolation and betrayal (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” from Psalm 22), and also turning to compassion towards his killers, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” He serves as an example of staying prayerfully, meditatively present - accepting the moment and the will of God while also releasing and working through fear - finding compassion, forgiveness, and eventually, the peace of heavenly resurrection.

Peace and care to you,

Rev. Cory

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