WHY YOUR SOUL IS TIRED
An Ancient Answer to an Anxious Life


(Reprinted with permission from Bishop Jeffrey Jonson's Substack ANCIENT FAITH FOR MODERN LIFE)
The alarm on the cellphone goes off. You reach to swipe off the sound, roll back into bed, and start to scroll.
New emails for work…some personal…new text messages…notifications. Maybe glance at the headlines.
Another day, another crisis. ..
Politics. War. Money. Work. Deadlines. News. Comparison. Here's what you're doing wrong. Here's what everyone else already seems to know.
You have been awake for ten minutes.
Instagram can make you compare your life to other people's lives; TikTok can make you compare your life to the entire world.
And already your soul is tired.
Perhaps you know the feeling.
We carry devices in our pockets capable of delivering the worries, arguments, tragedies, ambitions, accomplishments, and opinions of billions of people into our consciousness twenty-four hours a day.

Emma Chamberlain, one of the best-known voices of her generation, has talked about the strange psychological burden of life online. The internet makes us aware of what is happening everywhere, while social media gives us the sense that we are interacting with thousands of people at once.
It can become overwhelming. Do I measure up? Will I make it?

The statistics suggest she is hardly alone. Anxiety among young adults has risen substantially. Researchers point to many causes—financial insecurity, loneliness, work pressure, social comparison, disrupted sleep, smartphones, social media, and the relentless stream of information coming at us every day.

We have never had more tools to help us manage our lives.

So why do so many of us feel as though our lives are managing us?

JESUS SAID SOMETHING SURPRISING
Nearly two thousand years before smartphones, Jesus said something that sounds almost impossible to modern ears:
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.”
—Matthew 6:34, ESV
Don't be anxious about tomorrow?
Tomorrow has deadlines.
Tomorrow has bills.
Tomorrow has meetings, tuition payments, medical appointments, relationship problems, career decisions, and an uncertain future.
Was Jesus telling us not to plan?
No.
He was telling us something much deeper.
You cannot live tomorrow today.

Anxiety has a way of dragging tomorrow's possible troubles into today. We play out conversations that have not happened. We fear outcomes that may never occur. We imagine confrontations or disasters. Then we look backwards and relive that annoying encounter from yesterday.

We've got the future and the past scrolling through our minds, trying to solve next month, next year, or the next decade—all before breakfast.
Jesus keeps bringing us back to somewhere else:
Today.
Listen to the prayer He taught His disciples:
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
—The Lord’s Prayer
Not next year's bread.
It's not a stockpile of bread to guarantee that nothing frightening will ever happen.
This day's bread.
And immediately before Jesus tells us not to be anxious about tomorrow, He says:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
—Matthew 6:33, ESV

There is an order to life that begins to free us from living in tomorrow or yesterday instead of where God has actually placed us—in the “now.”
God first.
This day.
Daily bread.
Tomorrow will come when it comes.
Anxiety tries to make you live a hundred imaginary tomorrows. Jesus keeps bringing you back to God today—to the here and now.

COME AWAY AND REST
Jesus lived by a rhythm that seems almost radical today.
He regularly disappeared.
Luke tells us:
“But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”
—Luke 5:16, ESV
The timing is really interesting.
Crowds were growing. People wanted to hear Jesus. Sick people wanted to be healed. The demands upon Him were increasing.
And Jesus withdrew.
Sometimes He rose while it was still dark and went somewhere alone to pray. Sometimes He climbed a mountain. Before choosing the Twelve, He spent an entire night in prayer. After feeding the five thousand, when thousands of people were talking about Him, He sent everyone away and climbed a mountain alone.
Even on the night before His crucifixion, Luke tells us that Jesus went to the Mount of Olives “as was his custom.”
Solitude was not an escape from Jesus' vocation.
It was part of how He lived His vocation.
And Jesus taught His disciples this way of living, too. At one point the demands were so great that Mark tells us they did not even have time to eat.
Jesus' response?
“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”
—Mark 6:31, ESV
Come away.
Those may be words our generation desperately needs to hear.
Come away from the noise.
Come away from the notifications.
Come away from the endless arguments.
Come away from measuring your life against everyone else's.
Not forever.
Jesus always came back.
He did not withdraw from people because He didn't care about them. He withdrew into communion with His Father and then returned to teach, heal, serve, and love.
The pattern was simple:
Withdraw. Pray. Return. Love.
The Christian answer to an exhausted soul is not, Try harder to relax.
Come away. Pray. Be silent. Rest. Then return.

All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee

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Services & Events

This Saturday, Nov 7, DMAS Pre- Advent Retreat,8:30 Sign in & Continental Breakfast, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM (Retreat).  This year's retreat, "A Journey to be Experienced," will be led by Fr. Randolph Bragg and Fr. Chris Fish. The day includes Morning Prayer, three teaching sessions, fellowship over lunch, and a concluding Mass with sermon.

Sunday, 9:00 AM and 11:15 AM services, for online participation go to
https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland or to 
https://www.youtube.com/@StAndrewandStMargaret/streams

Nursery during both services

Sunday School, 10:30 AM
 
Wednesday, 12 noon, Holy Communion & Anointing for Healing  
for online participation go to https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland or to 
https://www.youtube.com/@StAndrewandStMargaret/streams
 
Wednesday, 7:30 PM, Bible study on Jesus and David offered by Fr. Bragg in the undercroft
for online viewing go to https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland or to 
https://www.youtube.com/@StAndrewandStMargaret/streams
 
Thursday, Nov 12, 07:30 - 08:30 AM, Junction Bakery (corner of Mt Vernon & Monroe in Del Ray), Women's Bible study of the pastoral epistles, meeting roughly every other week, breaking for holidays, etc. If you can't make all the meeting, please join us for some of them, whenever you can. 
For more information email Margot Anderson at margot.anderson@proton.me
 
Saturday, November 14, 8:30 AM, Men's Group Breakfast and Bible study; good food, good fellowship and great Bible study.

Monday. Nov 23,  7:30 PM, Vestry meeting

SAVE THE DATE: Monday Nov 30, 7:00 PM, Kirkin o' the Tartan with Evening Prayer, Bagpiper, more Scottish music, great reception with Scottish foods and beverages. Bring your tartans to be blessed, wear your kilts, invite your relatives, friends and neighbors for a great event

Saturday, December 5,  9:00 AM. New Weekly Inquirer’s Class in Parish House. Please email Fr. Chris for more information:  scotlandsaints@gmail.com.
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MaRiH Crisis Pregnancy Center: Recently Updated
Critical Needs & More
 
Below are 2 recently updated lists: the critical needs list and the needs list. The all volunteer staff of the MaRiH Center and the families that they help are very thankful for the support that our parish continues to provide.

Critical Needs:
Diapers: sizes 5 and 6
Boys and Girls Fall/Winter Clothing: size 2T
Boys and girls winter coats: size 2T
Baby Wipes
Baby Blankets
Baby formula: Similac Advance Formula
Bibs: toddler
Car seat: infant
Other needs:
Diapers: sizes newborn, 1, 2, 3, 4
Fall Winter Clothing: sizes 3-6 month, 9-12 month, 18-24 month, 
Bibs: infant
Maternity clothes: Fall/Winter
Wash cloths
Hooded towels
Baby bottles
Baby formula: All other Similac & Enfamil types. Also accept Alimentum & Nutramigen. No other brands are accepted. Please make sure dates have not expired.
Baby shampoo
Diaper rash ointment or cream
Sleep sack: 0-6, 6-12 month
There are two options for helping the Center with these needs:
Option 1 
Amazon has all the specific items needed. You can order the specific item(s) and have them delivered directly to the Center.  

The MaRiH Center
3230B Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-4521
703-370-4774

Option 2 
Go to your local store, purchase the items requested and drop them off at church on Sunday. We will deliver them to the MaRiH Center.
 
Food Bank 
 
The food bank continues to need our assistance to feed the hungry. .

Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Those we help feed are very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar). Also lower sodium products are better and more healthy.

Current needs include the following:
canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
tuna (cans or foil packages)
peanut butter. jelly
canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
individual fruit cups (low sugar)
canned fruit (low sugar)
canola or vegetable oil (48 oz)
boxed cereal (low sugar) and instant or old fashioned oatmeal (18 oz or 42 oz)
pasta (regular and gluten-free):
instant potatoes
single serving fruit juice
macaroni & cheese
soups: Chunky or Progresso, chicken noodle soup; chicken broth, cream of mushroom. tomato
coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar
 
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St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland
1607 Dewitt Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301-1625