Growing old is a privilege, especially in a time when we see people in their teens and early twenties losing their lives unexpectedly and, in some cases, senselessly. For me, finding a few more gray hairs to saturate with Jadore Eggplant 186 is a blessing because many wish they could experience this side effect of getting older.
One thing about getting older is that 12-month cycles appear to be too short, and now you have to measure time in five -and ten-year periods.
This now introduces a completely new level of anxiety because you feel the weight of every decision, as its impact may not be seen for years.
This reality led me to question how we determine and measure success and how we've moved away from simply wanting to be good at what we do to folding it into our identity and making it necessary for our survival.
When Success Starts to Feel Like Survival
I think I'm part of the faction of millennials who resent the boomers. I was talking with my 84-year-old grandmother a few nights ago, and we discussed her plans to downsize her home. We talked about the first home she bought in 1987; the home I spent weekends in throughout my childhood. It was a beautiful 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom house in Regency Park, and she paid $60k for it. A little over a decade later, she sold it for about $140k.
The cost of living has risen astronomically since then. Electricity and water bills are unpredictable; a gallon of fuel costs the same as a gallon of milk, and affordable housing requires a miracle and a kidney. Throw in the cost of healthcare and education, and we get to the real reason success is part of our identity.
What if we've been forced to see success not as an accomplishment but as necessary for survival? What if we think that having more money means we worry less, but instead it only changes what we worry about? I wonder if our obsession with hustle culture has less to do with proving we can achieve what we put our mind to and more with affording a life we can enjoy?
When success starts feeling necessary for survival, Matthew 6:25-34 brings things back into perspective. In this passage, Jesus addresses three specific yet basic needs: food, drink, and clothing. Sometimes we may trivialize this passage because we don't see our specific needs listed. After all, life in 2026 consists of far more than just those three. However, because God's Word is alive and applies to every generation across time, we can take the same principles and apply their truths today.
Look at The Birds
The most basic needs any being can have are food and water. Access to these two lays the foundation for meeting every other need. When Jesus tells us in verse 26 to look at the birds, He's telling us to pay attention to creatures that forage for food today without being concerned about tomorrow's meal. I love The Message Bible's translation because it says, "Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God."
Careless in the care of God is so powerful because it doesn't suggest carelessness in the sense of shirking responsibility or becoming lazy. It's existing and performing in the grace He's given you without allowing that performance to become responsible for your survival.
Birds were created as part of the planet's ecosystem, and while they weren't created in His image and likeness, He still cares for and provides for them. This is what makes the end of verse 26 so sobering when Jesus says, "And you count far more to Him than birds."
Look at The Flowers
When we begin believing that our success determines whether we'll be cared for, we carry that burden in every part of us. I think this is where the cycle starts and inevitably gets out of control. We shoulder the responsibility of caring for ourselves, and that weight takes a toll on our health and physical appearance. This compounds the cost of our care because we must now ensure we don't look like what we're enduring.
Maybe this is why Jesus points us to the birds and how they are fed and then to flowers and how they are clothed. Flowers don't exhaust themselves trying to become beautiful, yet God clothes them with a beauty that Solomon couldn't match.
I think Jesus' encouragement to look at the flowers is not just to draw attention to their remarkable beauty but to the fact that they are quite temporary. I think He wants us to consider: if God can invest so much detail into petals that are here today and gone tomorrow, how much more invested is He in the details of our lives?
I believe everything we need to live the life He called us to live is provided through Christ. I think this is why at the end of the passage, Jesus tells us to seek God and His kingdom first, and all the things we need for life will be added.
This does not mean that we know when or how every need will be met, but it means that we can bring our needs to a Father who already knows what they are.
So when we read, "Seek His Kingdom first..." it's not about a transaction: seek God, get things; it's an invitation to put Him first as we work, make decisions, and face what today requires. It's doing this while trusting that our ability to succeed is not the only source of our provision.