I don’t tend to offer advice, but here’s one piece of advice I’m quite sure everyone needs to hear: Quit borrowing troubles from tomorrow!
In a passage where Jesus talks about the problem of worry (Matthew 6:25-34) — a problem which has plagued humanity since the beginning (cf. Job 3:25-26) — He gives us salient advice:
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)
I think the Good News Bible is a bit clearer. It says — “Do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.”
Life has taught us that what Jesus says is true: each day brings its own set of problems.
As someone has said:
“As you solve one set of problems, new ones appear. That is part of the nature of life.” (Lee Kuan Yew)
Truth be told, most of us don’t get done working through one set of problems before new ones appear. This is why we so often feel overwhelmed.
But we make things worse when we borrow troubles from tomorrow. That is to say, when we start worrying about things that haven’t happened — and may never happen.
Which is so foolish!
As Jesus says,
“Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
How many of us have worried about contracting a disease or receiving a diagnosis — and it never happened?
How many of us have worried about someone we love becoming ill or dying in a car wreck — and it never happened?
How many of us have worried that our kids would fail in life or suffer some tragedy — and it never happened?
How many of us have worried that something would happen to our job, maybe we’d get get fired or laid off — but it never happened?
Or maybe it did.
Jesus’ point is: What good did it do you to worry about it in advance? And what good does it ever do to worry about things which might not ever happen?
The funny thing about life is that many of the things we worry about never come to pass. And most of the terrible things which happen to us take us by surprise.
That’s life.
And here’s something else that’s funny about life: If we’re not careful, we can bring about the very thing we fear.
As an example, think of the husband who fears his wife may be led astray by her handsome new boss. He worries and worries. And so, he begins to question her and grill her when she comes home from work. She begins to feel like she’s being interrogated on a daily basis and that her husband doesn’t trust her, though she cannot understand why. She thinks, “What has happened to him?”
Meanwhile, her boss comments on how nice she looks. He laughs at her jokes. He noticed when she changed her hair. She begins to think: “I like being around him a lot more than I do my negative husband!” It’s not long after that they begin an affair.
See what I mean? Sometimes we can bring about the very thing we fear.
Like the parent who rides their child hard about their grades because they are afraid their child will fail. After a time, the child gives up and…begins to fail. Why? Because they feel like they cannot please that parent no matter what they do.
It’s like the person who just knows they’re going to get fired. They worry about it every day. And it begins to show up in their work. They get so distracted by their worrisome thoughts that they routinely forget things. They start looking at other jobs as a “backup plan” and their current job suffers. Eventually they do get fired. Only because they brought about the very thing they feared.
I don’t know what you’re going through right now, but I’d bet that what Jesus said is true: you have enough to worry about today without borrowing from tomorrow.
So, stop it!
Quit borrowing troubles from tomorrow.
Stop worrying about things that have not — and may never — come to pass.
Deal with what’s right in front of you.
And more than anything — give it over to the Lord in prayer!
For as Peter says,
“Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)