0:00 Studies suggest the average person spends nearly two hours a day worrying.0:06 That’s almost fourteen hours a week, a part-time job we didn't apply for, spent on things that haven't happened yet.0:16 In our last conversation, 'A Quiet Start,' we talked about that deep trust from Proverbs, the one that lets you release the need for control.0:28 Today’s reading gives us the very next step: a practical tool for what to do with your mind, right now, on this day.0:38 Let's sit with this for a moment.0:41 From the gospel of Matthew, chapter six, verse thirty-four: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.0:53 Each day has enough trouble of its own.” It sounds so simple, doesn't it?0:59 Just...1:00 don't worry about tomorrow.1:02 But we both know our minds don't always work that way.1:07 Our minds are built to plan, to anticipate, to look ahead.1:12 And that's a good thing, a gift even.1:15 But worry is different.1:17 Worry is when that forward-looking mind gets stuck in a loop, rehearsing disasters that may never come to pass.1:26 So, this verse isn't a scolding.1:29 I think it's a permission slip.1:32 It’s giving you permission to set a boundary with the future.1:37 The future is not your assignment today.1:40 The verse says tomorrow will worry about itself, almost personifying it, as if to say, 'That's a different department.1:51 Not your job.' Here's what that means if you woke up this morning with a list of anxieties already waiting for you.2:01 Maybe it's a deadline at work, a tense family situation, or a health concern on the horizon.2:08 This verse invites you to gently take all those future-facing worries, and set them just over the line of midnight.2:18 They can wait there.2:20 Your only job is to handle what's on THIS side of the line.2:25 Your job is today.2:27 And notice that last line.2:29 'Each day has enough trouble of its own.' This isn't a promise of a trouble-free life.2:36 It’s not a call to ignore problems.2:39 It’s actually incredibly realistic.2:42 It acknowledges that today WILL have challenges.2:47 It WILL have 'trouble.' The wisdom here is about portion control for our anxiety.2:54 You have been given exactly enough strength, exactly enough grace, and exactly enough presence of mind for TODAY's portion of trouble.3:05 Not for today's, and tomorrow's, and next Tuesday's.3:10 Just today.3:11 Here's what that means if you're facing a big decision.3:15 You don't have to solve for every possible outcome that could ever happen.3:22 You just have to do the work that is right in front of you today.3:27 Make the phone call.3:29 Do the research.3:30 Have the quiet conversation.3:33 Take the ONE next step.3:35 The path unfolds one step at a time.3:38 Worrying about step fifty when you're standing at step one just means you're more likely to trip.3:46 This is a strategy for sanity.3:49 It’s a way to reclaim your attention from the thousand imaginary futures pulling at you, and to anchor it in the one, real, solid present moment.4:01 It's about being fully HERE.4:04 Because this is where life is actually lived.4:08 Not in yesterday's regrets, and not in tomorrow's anxieties.4:13 But right here.4:14 In this breath.4:15 At this table.4:17 On this day.4:18 So when that feeling starts to creep in later today — that familiar hum of anxiety about what's next — you can gently say to yourself, 'That’s a problem for tomorrow’s me.' And tomorrow's you will have the resources to handle it.4:37 Because tomorrow's you will have been given their own portion of grace for their own day.4:45 Your only assignment is the ground directly under your feet.4:50 The gift of this day is that it’s ALL you have to handle.4:55 You are not being asked to carry the weight of a week, or a month, or a lifetime, all in this one morning.5:04 You are only being asked to pick up one thing.5:08 Today.5:09 The rest isn't your job.5:11 Not yet.
