The Spiritual Journey, According to Jesus, Part 2

Whether or not you identify as a Christian, I believe we can all glean useful insights from Jesus’ teaching as to what the further spiritual journey looks like.

The spiritual journey leads us to increasing trust in God, and decreasing anxiety about our own performance.

I find this principle in the following words of Jesus from Matthew 6:25-33: 

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or ‘”What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I remember standing at beautiful vantage point on the New Jersey Shore at the lowest point of my life. I was there in a moment of fear that I would lose everything I valued. The anxiety was real. However, I noticed from my vantage point the vast expanse of the reality around me. I saw the brilliant, blue, cloudless sky extending farther than I could see above me. I saw the sun-splashed ocean extending in front of me all the way to the horizon, with no end in sight. I could look left, or look right, and see the point where the smooth sand bordered the rhythmic surf, seemingly forever in each direction. 

One word flooded my awareness as I observed the sights: abundance. There was more of everything than I could fathom: more spaciousness, more fluidity, more air, more water, more land. 

In that moment I knew that the abundance was about more than just the physical environment around me. There was more than enough of everything I needed, and that there would continue to be. It was true, there was more than I needed, and it was right around the corner: more than enough relational support, more than enough physical resources, more than enough hope.

My own anxiety about producing what I needed was misguided. Trust was the key.