March 18, 2023
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
– Jesus
Imagine living your life like this after the loss of a loved one: You wake up in the morning and are assaulted by conflicting emotions and a sense of helplessness and shock. You belabor what happened in the past, while over and over in your mind, you wrestle with what you should have done and could have done but didn’t do. You grapple with the times you were unloving and mean and inconsiderate.
Then, you return to the present and think about everything you have to do since your life was suddenly turned upside down by the death of a loved one. There are countless responsibilities to deal with amid all the emotional chaos.
Then, you grapple with the future. How will you go on? You aren’t going to make it. Tomorrow is terrifying because there are so many things that can, and will, go wrong.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his disciples to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and added, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Now, if Jesus were in a 12-Step program like Alcoholics Anonymous, he might have put it differently and said: “You can’t live a 72-hour day.” You can’t live with one foot in the past and one foot in the future, while straddling the present. It’s too overwhelming. Concentrate on the present moment.
In the corporate world, living a 72-hour day is considered a sign of productivity. It’s called “extreme time management” for people who are confronted with projects to complete, meetings to attend, clients to call, and lunches to schedule. However, the emotional and spiritual healing that grief requires cannot be accomplished through extreme time management. Grieving requires slow time, dedicated time, and quiet time.
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You can’t live a 72-hour day.