Be Here Now
I was sitting at work just a couple days ago, and I started hearing birds. Not just one or two, but multitudes of birds. I heard them out behind my house. I heard them out front of my house. I felt surrounded by the songs these birds were singing.
Eventually, their song drew me outside, and what I saw stunned me. Their songs were magnified by their numbers, everywhere you stood, it felt like they were there, singing and talking and I laughed with joy. I danced and spun in my driveway, walked out into the road and couldn’t help but beam with joy at this vision of life God had gifted me to see.
And as I came back inside, I started to remember all the work I had on my to-do list, and what I would have for lunch, when my packages would begin to arrive because the tracking number said it would arrive that day. Then it hit me: I don’t have to strive or think so far ahead or worry about when my packages would arrive because of the birds.
Not that the birds are delivering my packages or cooking dinner, but they’re not worried. They’re obviously in the middle of their migration as the weather is turning cold. They’re not worried about where they’re going to go, though. They just go. They don’t worry about where they’re going to take a pit stop. They just stop. They don’t worry about where their next meal is coming from. They just eat. They do not worry about the future. They don’t worry about the past. They are wherever they are exactly when they are there, and they are fully there. What can we learn from the birds?
When Jesus was touring through Israel, a large crowd had gathered around him as he traveled. He gave what we call the Sermon on the Mount on a mountainside to his disciples and the crowd who had gathered to hear. He spoke to them about a myriad of topics like giving to the needy, loving others, making promises, praying, and then he got to a point when he said:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Matthew 6:19-21, NIV).
When your eyes are set on building up wealth to establish power or position on earth, that is storing up treasures on earth. You know who can’t store up treasures in heaven? Birds. They don’t have pockets, silos, or savings accounts. I’m not saying to throw all your money away, but if you love it, you serve it, for as Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money,” (Matthew 6:24, NIV).
You can either treasure up money as your provider and sustainer, or God. We worry about so much and without even thinking about it, all of us try to provide and fill a void that cannot be filled outside of God’s all-encompassing, never-ending sufficiency. Jesus explains it to us in terms of the flowers and the birds. I wonder if maybe they were in a meadow on the side of this mountain, maybe sitting comfortably on some lush grass. Maybe some wildflowers were in bloom and birds were flying overhead. I can’t be sure why he chose flowers and birds, but it’s in there and it’s what we have to visualize in Jesus’s sermon.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 25-26, NIV).
“See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:39-30, NIV).
The gist is: God has never created something which He cannot provide for completely and without spreading Himself out too much. Therefore, since God created you, He can and will provide for you all that you need without spreading Himself too thin. You are never too much for God because He will always be more than enough for you.
We try to be everything for the ones we care for, and sometimes those we don’t (but that’s a conversation for a different time), and we can fool ourselves into thinking that if we work hard enough, we can do it. This, I believe, comes from God in us, being that He created us in His image, and so that has been passed in part to us as His creations, but because we are not God, we will never be able to do that. All of our attempts will be imperfect and barely passable at best.
What is asked of us is not to be all things for all people or work hard to provide for the future that you believe relies on you and making all of the right decisions right now for 50 years down the road.
What is asked of us is to be here now. Be here with Him. Be in the Spirit. Be in His presence. Rest in His sufficiency.
“So do not worry… for the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own,” (Matthew 6:31-34, NIV). Amen.
God is good, and He will never stop being good. He will never stop providing. He will never stop loving. He will never stop being enough, more than enough. As Jesus said in Matthew 6, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Grow in faith that draws you to the here and now with God, in your life right now, and you will find that tomorrow, and every tomorrow after, will worry about itself.
