Resting in our Impotence

“Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? If then you’re not able to do even a little thing, why worry about the rest?”

(Luke 12:25-26) 

My oldest son and I are reading through the gospel of Luke together and taking it section by section. Today when we were reading Luke 12:22-34, he said, “wow,” after we read the two verses quoted above. It made me pause and re-read them silently. One quick side note is that I love hearing what stands out to other people in the Scriptures, especially those who are relatively new and growing quickly in their faith. 

As I re-read these verses Jesus’s main point and the question he used to get there were highlighted for me. 

First question: Can we add even one moment* to our lives by worrying? 

Answer (implied): No. 

Conclusion: We should not worry about the “rest” of life. 

The “rest” of life covers quite a bit of ground. What am I worrying about today? What do I typically worry about? Have there ever been any moments in my life where worrying actually helped the situation? 

This is a wonderful little section of scripture to remember in moments worry. 

My son summarized it well in saying, “we don’t ever have to worry.” 

It is also profoundly intriguing to me that Jesus attaches this inability of ours to add even a moment to our life to His point that we do not need to worry. “If you’re not able to…” Then… “…why worry about the rest?” From one angle, He is telling us to be content, or at rest, in our inability.  Why worry about things that you cannot change? 

In the verses immediately following these, Jesus adds some pretty profound observations to drive home this point as well to provide an action item or two to replace the brain space and time that we normally waste on worrying.

As we move through the following verses and see God’s sovereign provision and care for even the grass of the field, it is possible to make the connection that God is sovereignly working in our lives in so many ways that we can simply choose to trust Him and let that replace our worry, especially in the spaces where we have no power to make a change.

*Other translations use the word “hour.” The literal translation is “cubit” or one unit of measure comparable to the distance between the joint of the elbow to the tip of a middle finger.

(https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/pechus.html)