A couple weeks ago I was doing some extensive yard work and had my own opportunity to deal with vines. The vines I had to deal with were planted along a chain link fence shared by two neighbors. I’m not sure who planted them but I was the one who had to deal with them and many of the things I had heard about vines were proven true. It was fitting that it was during this time I was working on a message about our ‘tomorrows’ and so Jesus’ words came immediately to mind:
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.—Matthew 6:34
Later on in Matthew Jesus is telling a parable about a farmer sowing seed and he talks about seed that fell among thorns, a particular type of vine. The parable is explained and we see that this portion involving vines is about a person who is choked by the worries of this life because that’s what worry does. That’s what vines do.
I call this picture ‘The Heart of the Beast’. It was hard work to defeat this vine and this portion is what remains clinging to the fence. It even resembles a human heart and is roughly the same size. Jesus wants us to remove worry from our lives and for good reason. Our worries are detrimental to the kind of Kingdom life he wants us live. Removing worry may be a lot of work, especially if it’s been growing unchecked, but once you’ve removed it chances are it will be a lot easier keeping it from showing up again and the results will be worth the effort.
Worry Spreads
The first part in dealing with worry is identifying the areas affected. A vine has one main root but as I encountered a vine has the ability to re-root in other areas as well. By cutting off the main root you may kill a lot of worry but you may notice other areas thriving just fine. Worry has a tendency to spread and so if you’ve let things go unmanaged for any length of time you’re probably going to find numerous areas affected in varying degrees.
Worry Fills
Our day-to-day routines in a large part are occupied with things like family, jobs and school. Worry fills the remaining space in our lives with unhealthy preoccupations. We can find ourselves consistently worried about our tomorrows and the myriad of ‘what if’s’ that we may or may not have to deal with. Being pre-occupied essentially means that a particular space is occupied in advance. We worry about that meeting before we even get to work. We worry about the doctor’s results before we’ve even had the test done. We worry about paying for our kids college even before they start kindergarten. Worry fills up our tomorrow’s before we even get there and so we enter each new day with a list of things to occupy our day and another round of worrisome preoccupations concerning the day after that. If God is going to have space to work and move in our lives we need to quit filling our days in advance.
Worry Kills
If you’ve ever removed vines that have covered over a tree or a bush you’ve probably been surprised to see just how much death the vines were covering up. Every plant needs sufficient sunlight to survive and while a vine early on is only filling in the open spaces to get the sunlight that it needs, it’s only a matter of time before the vine takes over its own space. Areas that were previously occupied and healthy become restricted and malnourished. The vine creeps in and steals a little more and a little more until a branch or more is left unable to survive. By removing the vines of worry from your life you can give areas of your life the light it needs to survive and flourish.
Be On Your Guard
Did you know that some people intentionally plant vines? The walls in the "Friendly Confines" didn’t get those vines by accident. Someone either planted them or let them grow. I mentioned earlier that the fence I was clearing up involved two neighbors. Perhaps at one time one of the neighbors didn’t want vines growing over into their yard and onto their trees. I don’t know the history there, so who knows. Some people have so much worry that it spills over into other people’s ‘yards’. Maybe you do a good job of maintaining the health of your own yard but you have this neighbor problem. Maybe you’ve had something like this happen in your own life. You have some sort of dream that you’re excited about. The more you think about future possibilities the more excited you get and you just have to share your dream with someone. So you share it with a neighbor, someone close to you. This person expresses their concerns about your dream. "Did you consider this?" "What if ‘this’ happens?" And just like that someone has planted vines of worry in the middle of your yard, your dreams. We all need to have people with discernment who can speak truth into our lives and help us make wise decisions. What we don’t need is a person inflicted with worry spreading their worries into our lives.
As I was working on this message about our tomorrow’s I was led to a passage in Joshua. While cleaning up rocks and debris where I was working I came across a smooth rock and upon closer examination it had a scripture reference on the bottom. Why should we not worry about our tomorrows? Let’s listen in to Joshua as he speaks to the people about crossing the Jordan River:
Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you."—Joshua 3:5
