Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Matthew 6:27
I didn’t realize what I had done until I was getting dressed at the gym before work and looked down at my feet: one blue sock, one black. It is a peril of the season now that the sun is rising later. I get dressed in the dark so as not to disturb my late-sleeping spouse Julee. There’s our dog Millie to be walked, and a cycling class at the gym across town I need to get to fast if I have any hopes of snagging an open bike.
All this rushing around in the dark and now it had finally happened: I’d had a wardrobe malfunction. I supposed I could run home and retrieve a matching pair… but, no, there was that early meeting I scheduled. Well then, I could stop at some store and buy a pair of socks, a drugstore or something because legitimate clothing stores don’t open until ten o’clock and by then, I was sure, my day would be destroyed.
What if one of the participants at this meeting noticed? I would lose all credibility. Who wants to do business with a man who can’t put on the same color socks? By now I was walking in the general direction of my office, still uncertain of my course of action.
I looked around me. A multitude of pedestrians were making their way to their jobs in almost an equally multitudinous array of clothing. People wear the craziest stuff to work these days, proud to demonstrate their personal style, to show a little bit of who they are by how they dress.
What was I so worried about? Maybe I thought this minor variation in hue revealed some inner chaos or lack of consistency. Maybe I thought I had to be perfect. I went about my day with my different colored socks and not a soul noticed. After a while, neither did I.
Lord, I can get so hung up on the small stuff that I let it ruin a day that is yet another perfect gift from You. Help me stay focused on the beauty and purpose of life and let the little stuff go.
