Trust, Not Fear, Is God’s Way

Today’s reading: Matthew 6:25-34

Today’s reading reminds me of an autobiography I read in about 1990, Confessions of an S.O.B. by the late Al Neuharth, founder of the USA Today.

I don’t have the book handy this morning, so I’ll have to paraphrase Neuharth’s great advice for business people (though his witty style is much more quotable): it’s often helpful to consult lawyers about your  ideas, but never let them tell you how to proceed.

He says if he had been as cautious as his lawyers had urged, his famous newspaper would have forever remained only in his head. (Having once lived just a few blocks from the paper’s colorful headquarters, I find it frightening to realize the happy energy of that place narrowly escaped abortion.)

I think of this Neuharth’s story every time I see a page of attorney-composed small print. And, when I take the time to actually read that print, I usually get a chuckle at the disclaimers. It’s funny that lawyers actually spend their careers encouraging clients to fear the most unlikely scenarios. But it’s also sad.

When I see, for example, a long list of exceptions to a store’s “return policy,” I think of a man who came to me at the returns desk of an electronics store I worked for in 1992.  He put a worn out answering machine on the counter and announced that it didn’t work. “I need a new one,” he said, as he presented me his purchase receipt — from 1986.

I looked around to see if I might be on Candid Camera but could spot no sign of a hidden crew.

“Sir, we offer a 30 day return period. I’m afraid it’s far too late to exchange this machine. But it certainly looks like you got your money’s worth out of it. We have several new models that I think may interest you.  Most of them are very inexpensive.”

The man was relentless — and obviously mentally ill. He stood his ground (very politely, I should note). He continued pointing to his receipt, explaining that he’d bought the machine with the understanding that we stood behind our products, and demanding an exchange.

As a crowd of other customers began forming behind him, I nervously caught the store manager’s attention and explained the situation. A few minutes later, the man left the store with his new answering machine, for which he was not asked to pay.

“It was either give the man a $20 answering machine or deal with him until the cops came to drag him out,” the manager told me afterwards. “I knew what Jesus would do.”

The lawyers behind the store’s return policy would have feared the precedent set by my boss’s Christ-like decision. They would have never foreseen the calm, happy ending to this story: the man never came back to the store, and no one else ever demanded to return another seven-year-old purchase.

Instead, a good lawyer’s thoughts would have been filled with horrifying images of demonic, eternal lines of customers at the return desk, angrily demanding free replacements for their battered, old appliances.

That’s just the way one has to think in order to write good legal copy and give proper legal advice. No wonder people don’t trust lawyers! And no wonder they nearly killed USA Today even before it started.

Today’s reading is just one of many pieces of scripture that shape my happy, non-legal,  thoughts on this topic of fear and worry.

“But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Verse 33-34)

Thanks be to God for love and trust — which always remain victorious over fear and worry.