Planning Ahead or Fretting Ahead?

I think most of the people I know are doing ok during our Coronavirus shutdown.  Some of us extroverts want to see more people.  Some people are unable to work, but unemployment has been largely available, at least for now.  Some parents would love to have teachers teach their kids again.  Cancelled trips and shows and events are a real bummer, but they don’t threaten our existence or endanger us in any way.  So this is more of an emotional or mental challenge than a physical threat to most people.  

But where it can go south for us is thinking ahead. 

There are two sides to thinking ahead.  One kind of thinking ahead is beneficial.  It’s a rational, thoughtful consideration of what might happen in the future that will require you to plan ahead.  This thinking ahead is praised in the Bible with the ant in Proverbs lauded as our example and Joseph in Genesis prepping the Egyptians for the famine.  You pray about the situation and then take practical steps to prepare.  

But the other kind of thinking ahead is destructive.  It’s worrying about what’s going to happen.  This thinking ahead is rooted in insecurity.  It’s the fear of what will happen to us IF . . . .

God doesn’t want us to go there.  You know why?  Because He hasn’t given us the grace and the peace for that day yet.  He only gives us what we need for today.  As Sarah Young says in Jesus Calling, “Just as the Israelites could not store up manna for the future but had to gather it daily, so it is with My Peace.”  And Jesus said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow.  Tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:34. Here’s how The Message translates that verse:  “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”  If you live your life worrying about this tragedy or that possibility, you will miss out on what God is doing right now and the living you were blessed with today.  

Another problem with thinking (and worrying) ahead is that we tend to envision the situation without God in it.  Problems in the future look too big for us to handle because they are too big for us to handle.  But remember God told us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9.  

Things may get better or things may get worse.  It could be a mixture of the two.  But whatever, find what God is doing today and live here.