“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” (Mt 6: 31-34)
If you’re feeling extra-anxious about your material “success,” whether it’s with regard to your finances, or your outer appearance, – I once heard a wise person say, – then intensify your spiritual “program,” and re-connect with God, because He grants us the grace to put these things in the proper, healthy perspective. His stable, unchanging and loving “vision” of us never fluctuates, as does ours, between obsessiveness, despair or neglect. His divine clarity about us, as we are today, “rubs off” on us when we connect with Him, and helps us to do the next right thing also for our material well-being, in His Spirit of gentle realism that is humility.
Lord, as we intensify our spiritual “program” and begin the Apostles’ Fast today, help me accept myself as I am, and things as they are, in the peace and grace of Your humility. And help me to help myself, to do the next right thing, also for my physical well-being, that I not be “anxious” about it, either through obsession or inactivity, both of which lead to the poison that is fear. “For the peace from above, and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.” Just for today. Amen!
