Where Does Your Heart Rest?

So this past week, on my day off, I had a chance to go to visit some friends in College Station, and it seems that every time I travel to a different place, or a new city the first thing I need to do is find a good coffee shop. I’m think I’m a little obsessed with coffee, good coffee, freshly roasted, freshly grounded, specifically sourced and brewed at 190-205 degrees Fahrenheit.

To some people, they may ask, “why do you care so much about coffee?” “Can’t you just stick a pod into a Keurig and go?”

I don’t know about you but don’t you have some things that for some reason or another, you care about and have a passion for, and other people just don’t understand why you care so much about those things? Like, it could be coffee, or friends, or the TV show This is Us (these are probably just the things I care about). But have people ever had someone say to you, “Why do you care so much about that?”

And then today, in the Gospel, Jesus seems to say to us, “Don’t care. Don’t care about your life, don’t care about what you eat and drink.” Is he saying, “I shouldn’t plan or I shouldn’t work hard?”

But if you listen carefully, nowhere in the Gospel does Jesus say, “Don’t plan” or “Don’t work” or “Don’t care.”

Instead He says, “Don’t worry.” The Greek that is used can be translated to: “Don’t have excessive anxiety.”

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear… Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

I think sometimes, we worry and we feel like it’s helpful or caring. My mom sometimes says, “It’s my job to worry, or I have to worry about you because I’m your mom.” But is it a parent’s job to worry? Does worry do anything? Does worrying help? It doesn’t. Sometimes we can convince ourselves that worrying is doing something.

Parents it’s not your job to worry. You may say, “I worry because I care.” But why not act because you care? Why not help because you care? Why not pray because you care? Worrying doesn’t actually add anything to one’s life. That’s why today, Jesus says, “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?”

The only thing… that worrying is good for is figuring out where our heart is. The only thing worrying is good for is this: What we worry about reveals where our heart is. (x2)

It reveals where I am putting my trust. Am I putting my trust in my health? I’m worrying about my health. So my health is where my heart is. Am I putting my trust in the man or woman? Am I worried about whether he or she loves me or not? That’s where my heart is. Am I worried about my success or career? That’s where I’m putting my trust in my career. (Am I worried about school or my grades, that’s where I put my heart, that’s what I’ve put my trust in for my life, for my happiness.)

Today God tells us, “Do not worry about those things, do not put your trust in those things, put your trust in me!” Do not put your heart on those things, as we sung in today’s responsorial psalm, let your heart and soul “rest in God alone!”

Just as a mother cannot forget her own child, and even if she does, God will never forget you. You can trust him!

In a just few days, we will begin the season of Lent, the time where we, as Catholics, strive and work towards drawing closer to God, to trust him more. Begin to think about what are the things other than God that you have placed your heart on? What makes you worry? What causes you excessive anxiety? What has so occupied your heart that it now takes the number one spot in your life?

I challenge you, as we begin Lent this Ash Wednesday coming up, to make the thing you give up or do for Lent to be related to this. This year don’t just give up soda or chocolate. Instead make what you do this Lent related to this. Use this time of Lent that we will have, to begin to let go of those worries and to trust in Jesus more.

Lent is a time where we put aside the worries and the little things you care about, and dare I say perhaps even the great desire for good coffee… and instead focus on the things that matter: on our desire for God and on God’s desire for us.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and all these (other) things will be given you besides.” This Lent, place your worries on God, place your heart on God, and place your trust on him alone.