You Can Handle It

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41–42, NIV 1984).

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? (Luke 12:25–26, NIV 1984).

“The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (Mark 4:19, NIV 1984).

“Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:25–26, NIV 1984).

My Musings – “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” – Henry Ward Beecher.

The “one thing” or “many things.” There are indeed many things that we can be “worried and upset about.” The fact is, anxiety has many handles, not just one. For example:

“What [we] will eat or drink; or about [our] body, what [we] will wear.” (Matthew 6:25, NIV 1984). Way too many today are way too obsessed with their body.

Will there be enough in our 401K to retire when we want? Who during the great depression even had a retirement account? They certainly did not have Social Security.

Will we be raptured before, during, or at the end of the rapture? (Ouch).

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Actually a “serious” debate during the Middle Ages that garnered the attention of such theological heavy weights as Sir Thomas Aquinas.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Nobody seems to care why the egg crossed the road, but still wonder about that chicken?

Which of these “little things” can we control? If we could, would life really be better? Would it “add a single hour to [our] life? Even if it could, what would we worry about during that extra hour?

These worries and desires “come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” Making that one “handle of faith” that we do have a handle of “little faith.” Making us think “we’re going to drown” when compared to the One that “even the winds and the waves obey” (Matthew 8:27, NIV 1984), is merely a puddle that is knee deep. So, that “one thing [that] is needed” and that cannot “taken away from [us]” is given away.

My Advice – Let’s get a handle on our faith. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39, NIV 1984).