Worrying and Seeking. At TWT Wednesday night, we finally had "small group" sessions with the high-schoolers. Our group consisted of five ninth grade boys and one boy-crazy tenth grade girl. We read together Matthew 6: 25 - 34. (One of the boys was Justin Hume, of the famous Virginia Gardens Humes, whose older siblings played soccer with all our kids. And Justin is not the last Hume of his generation - there is a younger one than he! I really liked what I saw of Justin. For that matter, I liked what I saw of all of them.)

The passage you should read in its entirety. As usual, I learned something I didn't quite get in the past. Usually I have read this passage in pieces - or at least have thought of the pieces separately. The pieces are (a) Don't worry, God loves you, etc. and (b) Seek first his kingdom. What I didn't really get until Wednesday night is that the way to avoid worry is to get busy with God's kingdom. This is so obvious! What else have I missed in scripture? (Lots. But I have only been reading the Bible or having it read to me for about 59 years.) A corollary is that one is not of much use in God's kingdom if he is going around worrying about things.

How the kingdom is to be "sought" is an issue, of course. But that's for further consideration and prayer. The point is that we don't not worry because worry is not good for us, we don't not worry because we have other, more important things to do.