The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the book, Love Isn’t Selfish: Understanding God’s Love through Human Relationships
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I once had a dream that I was in the passenger side of a car on a very curvy, dangerous road. The car was going very fast but I could see no one in the driver’s seat. In the dream, I knew the car was being controlled from outside. I knew I was safe, but I could not relax. I kept looking at the curves as we sped along, and then back to the empty driver’s seat. Right before I woke up, I climbed over into the driver’s seat to try to take control.
How often do we do that in our day-to-day lives? When the road gets curvy and everything is coming at us too fast, we resort to fear – even when we KNOW that we are safe and God is in complete control. We get distracted by the selfishness of fear. We are no longer trusting our loving Father, and we try to take the wheel.
I’m sure that all of us can think of so many distractions in our own lives- the dangerous curves that seem to be approaching at break-neck speed. Medical problems, financial burdens, vehicles that break down at the most inopportune times, new jobs and new starts, relationship troubles, personal insecurities… there are always curves ahead. There are always fears and worries that try to creep into our thoughts. Matthew addresses this issue perfectly.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:25-34).
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