Jesus said, “Do not worry…” Did Jesus know how hard that is? To not worry, to try and force yourself to not worry, to command your mind to not think about the future, is like telling yourself, “Don’t think about pink elephants.” Try it, tell yourself, “Do NOT think about PINK ELEPHANTS!” As soon as you make such a demand, it’s hard to think about anything else. The pink elephant in the room becomes the pink elephant in your brain.
Perhaps, to enter into the counsel of Jesus in Matthew 6, it’s easier to begin in an imaginary place. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy learns that she has the power to find home anytime she wants by clicking her heels together three times and saying each time, “There’s no place like home.”
To remind yourself to live your moments, to be at home whenever and wherever and with whomever you’re with, say three times, “There’s no place like now.” You can even click your heals together three times if you want. Once you accept, “There is no place like now,” then you can liberate yourself from constant witchy worries and let today’s difficulties be enough for today.
Here is the full text from Jesus’ sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,j] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
