As we noted last week, we are to live in this world - not as hermits - and to do so in a responsible and caring way. But living before God changes the shape of how we live and the pressures we live under. And there is a whole new industry now helping us to cope with stress.
Some years ago, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., stated that statistically 80 to 85 percent of their total case-load were ill either in reality or artificially due directly to mental stress. More recently, an article appeared in a leading medical journal under the title, "Is Stress the Cause of All Disease?" The author of the article said that at the beginning of the century, bacteria were considered to be the centre of attention. Today, mental stress has replaced bacteria.
What do managers in business worry about most? A survey by Industry Week in November 1987 compiled this list from those ranked in the top five:
We note that Estate Planning came before their relationships with their children and also before their marriages.
Typically, what we make the top goals of our life, our top priorities, tend to become our stress points. So, before Jesus talks about the worries that fill our waking hours, he addresses these top priorities. They are the root cause and worry is the symptom.
"Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are" (Mt.6.19-21).
Jesus has already spoken about the "reward" that comes from living our lives before God (vv.4,6,18). He now draws attention to our push for security - financial and otherwise. In those days, the problem was with "moths and rust". With us, it is with inflation, taxes, the stock market, stability, safety…
It is curious that Jesus says that "your heart will always be where your riches are." We assume it ought to be the other way round - that our heart determines where our riches are. But our riches tend to possess us, to absorb our every waking moment.
Remember the rich young man? Jesus saw that he was possessed by his possessions and said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me" (Mt.19.21).
One writer comments, "This spiritual treasure, Jesus now asserts, though invisible and intangible, is far more real and lasting than the material good which men and women in their undue anxiety about the future are at so much pains to amass. These possessions, even if they escape the clutches of the marauder, are only too likely to become moth-eaten and rusty. To set one's heart, therefore, upon them is to live in perpetual, even if unrecognised, insecurity; it is also to deprive oneself of heavenly treasure which is beyond the reach of thieves and secure from the ravages of moth and rust."
Vv. 22-23 - "The eyes are like a lamp for the body. If your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eyes are no good, your body will be in darkness. So if the light in you is darkness, how terribly dark it will be!"
We all know the importance of our eyes and a number of us face the difficult reality of failing eyesight. But this saying of Jesus is not so much about physical sight as about perception, the way we regard things. It is amazing how two people can witness the same event and see it so differently. Their sight is the same. Their perception is different. This can be so for a whole variety of reasons.
A few years back we spent a week's holiday in Adelaide. We established contact with a young Queenslander who was working as an optometrist down there. Her perception of the Grand Prix - and that of many others in Adelaide, we gathered - was very different from what was portrayed in the media. I suspect the same is true of the Indy race at the Gold Coast this weekend.
And how our vision gets distorted! We find all kinds of reasons for serving both God and money (v.24)!
A missionary in Africa had been witnessing faithfully to a local. Following their conversation one day, the unconverted man placed a small statue and a silver coin on the table before him. Then he took two slips of paper and wrote something on each. Putting one beside the image and the other with the money, he turned to the Christian worker and said, "Please read this." On the note by the idol were written the words, "Heathen god." The sheet next to the coin bore the inscription, "Christian god." From what that man had observed in the lives of the merchants from so-called "Christian" nations, he concluded that money was the object of their devotion!
No! Our true riches are not on earth, but in heaven. Our life and all that we have has to be seen in the light of our relationship to God and our service of him.
Jesus now proceeds to talk about worry in a way that gathers us all in. No mention of the worries of the first-century millionaires! Just the "bottom-line" things like food and clothing! It is curious that, at the head of the business managers' list of worries mentioned earlier, was their own health and fitness - with a rating of 73%.
Worry gets at us in many ways. It tests out our priorities. It can dominate our thinking and paralyse our constructive action.
A recent lesson with primary school children asked them, "What are some things that scare kids of your age?" The range of problems included: not having friends, sickness, fires, problems at home, moving house, big dogs, the dark, the boogey man, sharks, tigers… As we talked about the variety of responses they had written down, we realised that some worries were based on reality, while others were quite unlikely, unreasonable or imaginary.
It is like the patient in the mental hospital, holding his ear close to the wall, listening intently. The attendant finally approached.
"Sh!" whispered the patient, beckoning him over.
The attendant pressed his ear to the wall for a long time. "I can't hear a thing," he finally said.
"No," replied the patient, "it's been like that all day!"
So, to our most basic needs, Jesus puts the question, "Why worry?" and goes on to give some solid reasons for not worrying.
We can't afford to live with worry, and we don't need to when we have a Heavenly Father who cares for us! But what are our top priorities? It does come back to that again!
Jesus urges us, "Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things" (v.33).
Learning to love, to trust and to obey God needs to be the central passion of our lives - and our other needs will be adequately fulfilled. And all who live in this way can testify that God does love us and can be trusted with all our needs!
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