Do not worry about your life

The bashed-in bumper

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 12:22-40

TO CHEW ON: " 'Be dressed, ready for service, and keep your lamps burning.' " Luke 12:35.

I'm writing this while we're on vacation. For the most part we're having a wonderful time. But there have been a couple of glitches. For one, I lost the key to the motel room on our first night. It was on my key ring but when I went to take it off at checkout time, it was gone, disappeared, nowhere to be found.

Then three days later someone hit and bashed in the back bumper of our car in a parking lot. Fortunately the woman owned up. But our (new) car now has this ugly blemish, and we have the hassle of dealing with a couple of insurance companies, a body shop etc. to look forward to.

In the scheme of things, these are very little things I know, but still have the power to overshadow our vacation and put me in a space of low-grade angst. What will happen next?

Anxious is how I was feeling when I opened my tablet to this morning's reading and read the words that began today's passage: "'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body what you will wear…'" (Lord, I see You've been reading my mind!)

In our discussions about how we handled our interaction with the woman who caused the accident, both hubby and I were disappointed in ourselves.  "I could have been so much nicer," hubby said.

Jesus addresses this aspect of life too, further down in the reading: " 'Be dressed, ready for service and keep your lamps burning.' " I believe the two ideas are connected. Our carefree attitude can liberate us to be ready for kingdom service in situations where, in the natural we would be stressed out and controlled by anxiety.

May it be so in my life—even during the rest of this vacation!

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please help me to trust You so completely that I'm available for service and can be a light shining onto every situation. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.