Consider these facts about the class which recently graduated from high school in America. They have no recollection of the Reagan era. There has been only one Pope for most of their lives. They were two years old when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War. They are too young to remember the first space shuttle blowing up. Tianamen Square means nothing to them. Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums. They have never heard of an 8-track.

The Compact Disc was introduced before they were born. They have always had cable and VCRs. Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave. They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran. Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not bands. They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter. And Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.

Speaking of Mr. Leno, I once heard him say that his father complained about walking five miles through the snow to school. "What will we complain about to our kids?" he asked. "We had to get up to change the channel."

Tomorrow comes so quickly that we worry about it today. But Jesus says that we should not: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34). How do we do this? A psychologist once said that 90 percent of his patients live in fear of the future or guilt over the past. Wouldn't you like to refuse both? How do we live in the now?

"Do not worry," our text begins, translating a present tense imperative. Literally rendered, Jesus said, "Stop worrying, every time worry starts again in your life." "About tomorrow"--specifically, about anything having to do with the future. No exceptions, no qualifications, no loopholes. Why? "Tomorrow will worry about itself"--it will take care of itself. You cannot. You can't do anything about tomorrow, today.

In fact, "tomorrow" doesn't exist. It's just a word, a prediction. How much does "tomorrow" weigh? What color is it? Even God cannot help us with what does not exist. So we are to focus on today, for "each day has enough trouble of its own." The word describes damage done to a crop by hail, the normal problems of living in this fallen world. You have enough to think about for today without borrowing from tomorrow.

The upshot: live in the now. Stay in the present. Let's learn how, next.

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