People often talk to me about their worries and anxieties. The fact is, we all have fears, it is part of being human. There’s the fear of the future, the fear of dying or ill health, fear about the way the world is going, fear of failure, fear of not having enough money.

In one of his most famous sermons, Jesus acknowledged that we all have fears (Matthew 6:25 onwards). He knows that we worry; and worrying, he says, calls for new approaches. Look around you. Consider the birds. Consider the lilies of the field. They don’t worry. They act as if God is in charge. And so should you. Consider the natural world around you and trust in the God who sustains it. Imagine that you are held in the palm of God’s hand.

Jesus then moves on to the question of time. Our fears are mainly about the future. Will my pension be big enough? Will my cancer come back? Will Ukraine ultimately beat the Russians. And so on. Jesus says: concentrate on the now. Don’t think about the past and don’t worry about the future. Stay in the now. Focus on one thing at a time, especially on what you can control or influence. That may mean just sitting still in a room, if we can find the time to do that. Or listening to music. Or, as some will say, sitting quietly and meditatively in prayer, perhaps thinking of just a simple phrase of scripture: O Lord increase my faith. All this simply to concentrate. It will reduce our anxiety and so help to free us from our fears.

And there’s a third thing that can help us cope with worries: it is to connect with others. Most obviously and immediately connecting with those devastated by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Connecting with anyone else who needs our help or our support.

The period of Lent, which we entered on Ash Wednesday on 22 February, is a time for reflection. A time to consider, to concentrate and to connect.

With every blessing
Stephen