“Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes?

“…Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? 

“…Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-34

Posting interesting blogs has been fairly easy over the past couple of weeks, thanks to the presence and the shenanigans of the grandchildren. But now the Campbell crew are back home in Miami and I am caught up in all the excruciating details of preparing for Rebekah’s retirement, just three weekends away.

To be honest, I am experiencing more frustration than I can reasonably manage. It is one thing to make plans, to do all the right things, and to be confident that we have all our ducks in a row; it is something else to navigate the speed bumps, diversions, confusions, miscommunications, incompetencies, obstructions, and pettiness of the process.

Kudos to the Presbyterian Board of Pensions for being helpful and timely in their communications. Not so much the Social Security Administration and Medicare. You’d think, having paid in at a high rate for forty-years, the process of activating benefits would be less complex and involve better communication?

I would offer more details regarding my interactions with the Raleigh Social Security office, but I will wait until my fate is out of the hands of the individual who may – I pray – yet redeem himself.

All of which points to the scripture verse that is on my mind this morning.

Jesus said – “Desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself…”

HELP!

But this is easier said than done when we live in a world where the bank still likes to see mortgage payments come in on time, where the IRS is more interested in taxes being paid than Social Security is in meeting its obligations, and where piles of confusing paperwork often stand between real assets and the reality of accessibility.

Yet I still need to say, with faith and conviction, “You’ve got this, God.” And I need to live today in the all-too-limited scope of the trust I profess.

But I am weak, and I falter. “Lord I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” – (Mark 9:24)

“Gentiles long for all these things,” Jesus said. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them…” – Matthew 6:32

That’s me, the worrying Gentile…”- DEREK