Last time I mentioned how Jesus’ immersive interaction with God’s kingdom and life allowed him to live without self-concern and thus forgive freely, fully and without measure. As his apprentices, this is a core lesson he’s trying to teach us. A life that fully engages with God’s kingdom and faithfulness will experience less self-concern as it experiences God’s faithful care (Matthew 6:33).

The Apostle Peter puts it this way:

“Humble yourselves, then, under God’s powerful hand, so that he may lift you up at the right time. Throw all your care upon him, because he cares about you.” 1Peter 5:6-7

I’ll be honest, I really struggle with this. I’m always calculating. I think it’s part of my personality. And the two things I’m always calculating in almost any situation are time and money. I can tell you how long certain aspects of my daily routine will take. If you ask me what time it is, I can estimate the time with fair accuracy without looking at a clock. I can calculate the amount of time to accomplish a task. And don’t get me started on money. I’m always calculating income and expenditures. And now that retirement is only several years away, it’s gotten worse.

The problem with my ability to calculate is that it then leads to stress, anxiety and worry. Because let’s face it, for most of us, there’s never enough time and money. My constant calculating can lead me to feel hurried to accomplish more than time allows or to fret unhealthily over how to save more and spend less. 

To take it back to where I started, this is self-concern. And self-concern is a significant obstacle to embodying God’s love. You can’t love someone freely, fully and without measure if you’re worried about yourself and what this will cost you in time and money.

But humbly immersing oneself in God’s kingdom and character, allows us to cast all our cares upon God. We can enter a carefree life that can put others above ourselves and completely and competently love them.

Jesus was carefree. When the paralytic’s friends tore up the roof to lower their friend before Jesus, he didn’t care about the roof. (Some scholars believed this was Jesus’ house.) I would have immediately started calculating cost of repairs and missed the opportunity for healing.

When there’s only a handful of fish and bread to feed a crowd of thousands, Jesus’ disciples are worried about their severely limited resources. Jesus doesn’t care. He prays and watches his Father multiply it so everyone is well-fed.

When Jesus and the disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee during a storm, he’s asleep carefree while they are quickly calculating their shortening life expectancy. And when awakened, he stills the wind and the waves with a command.

Jesus was very aware of the stressors these circumstances posed. The difference between the disciples and Jesus is that they calculated based on only what they could see while Jesus calculated based on what couldn’t be seen. His calculations factored in what he knew about his Father.

Here’s how Dallas Willard puts it:

“Jesus knew and acted on the fact that Yahweh is limitless, boundless, and unrestrained in power, grace, mercy, peace, joy, hope and love. All things are possible. All things. Jesus knew his Father’s name, and he knew when to invoke it to do his will, creatively, adventurously, and joyfully, for himself, for the well-being of others, and ultimately for the entire world.”

Jesus was carefree because he truly knew his Father.

But carefree doesn’t mean stress-free. Jesus’ life was filled with external stressors just like ours. Stressors are part of life. In fact, stressors are essential in life. As we live immersed in God and grow in our experiential knowledge of him, our calculations in any stressful circumstances will begin to account for God’s powerful and faithful provision. Then we can act upon that knowledge in the midst of stressful circumstances. And because we lack self-concern, we can be carefree and not let the external stressors become internal stress.

Then we can love freely, fully and without measure.