Brian and Kathy Emmet
 
“So don’t worry about what you will eat, drink, wear … your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness …” (Matthew 6:31-33).
 
“I don’t need this!” – and I’m not talking about decluttering.
 
I’m talking about “I don’t need this!” when the this is a situation that is frustrating, annoying, aggravating, irritating, a hassle.  Traffic … unexpected, unreasonable demands … difficult boss, colleagues, spouse, children … the many ways in which life sends us yet another “That’s so unfair!” 
 
“I don’t need this!”
 
What do we really need?  It’s pretty simple, Jesus says: enough to eat and drink, a place to live, clothes to wear, those sorts of things.
 
And something else; something even more important than the necessary “basics.”
 
According to Jesus, what we most need is to become the kind of people who are fashioned to fit into God’s right-side up kingdom.  Our upside-down world relentlessly tells us that we need more things, more activities, more demands, more distractions, more complexity, more money-laws-education-health-technology and so on in a never-ending list of “More is needed!”
 
Jesus clarifies and simplifies.  Everyone needs the basics.  God knows that we do, and intends that everyone has them.  To “not worry about what we will eat and drink and wear” does not mean that we cease working, only that we would cease worrying about it all. 
 
And those situations and circumstances that make us cry, “I don’t need this!” may be just what we really do need.  I keep asking God to change my circumstances, but God may be actively using those circumstances to change me!
 
Jesus clarifies and simplifies.  What we most need is for our capacities for love and mercy, for truth and justice, for goodness and beauty, for compassion and courage to be developed, deepened and expanded.  We need to become more like Jesus our King, more fit to live in and represent his right-side up kingdom in the midst of our upside-down world.
 
It all boils down to Yes and No.  What do we need to say Yes to each day, and to what do we need to say No?  Yes to the simplicity (NB: “simple” does not mean “easy” or “comes naturally”!) of love, justice, grace, mercy, patience, kindness and the Kingdom values of the Sermon on the Mount.  No to hurry, worry, needless distractions and entertainments, and the upside-down world’s ever-lengthening list of “More of this!!!”
 
Pick the last time you recall saying “I don’t need this!”  How might God have been working on you through that situation?
 
What’s one kingdom-thing you would like to start saying Yes to?  What’s one upside-down world thing you would like to say No to?