Having had a really busy saturday (hence the late post) and with bills for new tyres, building insurance etc.. all coming at a time id rather not and eating into all my savings, this verse came at the right time, there is more to life than bills, so why worry about it so much.

If it were possible to blaspheme against a secular culture, then this quote certainly does so against our modern culture!  Life is more than celebrity chefs, trendy restaurants and modern kitchens; the body is more than designer labels and fashion statements; transport is about why you travel, not what car you drive; homes are about those who live in them, not the floor-covering and interior décor.  Surely he doesn’t mean that?!

Obviously in the part of the world we live in, very few of us have to worry about whether we will be able to eat or clothe ourselves tomorrow; but many of us concern ourselves over how to dress-to impress?- and some of us spend our day working out what the next thing we eat will be (I’m including myself - or am I alone in this?). I pray that today I will try not to fret over what to wear or what to eat but to use that time living the life God wants me to.

God’s love is for us all. May we respond to him and love others as He loves us. There is nothing greater than that.

Christ was speaking to disciples who had left what security they had in order to follow him.  Disciples could perhaps worry about food and clothing, but which of us doubts we will eat tomorrow?
The message to us, with our welfare-state, our houses, cars, salaries and pensions, is in the preceding verses where Jesus tells of the rich man who said to himself “thou hast much goods laid up for many years:  take thine ease…”
Verse 20: But God said unto him “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou has provided?”

Fair enough to challenge us to spend less money on food and clothes but in reality in our household that would mean having to buy brands that are not fairly traded and which then exploit the very poorest. Yes buy wisely; yes think before you have to buy yet another jumper but please in cutting down don’t compromise the poor.

I guess there is no clearer evidence of our failure to live this verse than last night’s Comic Relief broadcast - probably an inspired way of stimulating our better side, to the good of the less fortunate rather that a cynical episode in conscience drenching. I watched,I wept, I gave and I went to bed feeling slightly better with myself and slightly guilty for doing so.
It strikes me as bizarre, really, that while we beat ourselves over the head for being born into a disproportionate share of the world’s material wealth, Jesus was preaching to those who had very little. Pity the poor rich man.

Our earthly needs are important of course, but we need to remember that our ultimate goal is an eternity in heaven. I recall the words from my old catechism in answer to the question “Why did God make us?”  :

God made us to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next world.