Dear friend,
Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.
Worry about money has a way of colonizing every hour, not just the ones where a bill is due. It moves into the grocery store, the mailbox, the quiet minute before sleep, until the whole day feels like it is being spent twice, once in living it and once in calculating it.
Matthew records Jesus telling a crowd not to be anxious about tomorrow, since tomorrow will carry its own worries, and today already has enough trouble to occupy it. I notice He does not promise there will be no trouble tomorrow. He is not telling them the money will come, or that the debt will resolve the way they hope. He is drawing a line around today and saying that is the only ground anyone actually stands on. Tomorrow's shortage cannot be solved from here, no matter how many hours I hand it.
In 1997, with two boys and a husband between jobs for four months, I kept a running tally in my head of everything that might go wrong in the spring. None of it happened the way I had rehearsed it. What I lost was the winter.
What is the one thing today is actually asking of you, apart from tomorrow?
A prayer
God, You see the numbers she keeps running and the nights they keep her awake. Give her enough for today, and the mercy of not having to carry tomorrow yet. Amen.