One Thing at a Time

Anxiety is greedy: it wants you to suffer today for problems that may never even arrive. You sit down for lunch and you're already living out tomorrow's meeting. You lie down to sleep and you're already carrying the whole week at once. It's like trying to carry thirty days on the back of today — of course the weight crushes you. Jesus offers a simple, radical wisdom: each day has enough trouble of its own, and that's already enough. He isn't being pessimistic; He's being realistic and merciful. God's grace comes in daily portions, like the manna in the desert, which couldn't be stored up. You don't receive today the strength for tomorrow's problems — you receive the strength for today's. That's why rushing ahead into suffering is living without grace, spending energy that hasn't even been given to you yet. Today, make an agreement with God and with yourself: "I will take care of only today. Tomorrow, when it comes, will come with His grace." One thing at a time. One day at a time.