Is it normal to worry about money all the time?
She sat at the kitchen table after everyone else had gone to bed. The laptop was open, the numbers were not adding up, and the grocery order was already stripped to what they could not do without. The insurance premium was due. One prescription had gone up. Payday was still days away. She started moving things around in her head. Maybe the electric bill could wait. Maybe the appointment could be rescheduled. Then the other question arrived, the one that had been following her for weeks: what if something else happens?
We can build a whole life trying to stay ahead of that question. Work hard, save what we can, plan carefully. Then the car needs repairs or someone gets sick or a bill arrives we did not see coming. Suddenly we are back at the kitchen table at midnight, realising how much of this was never in our hands at all.
She grew up hearing things about trusting God. She was not even sure anymore what she believed. But sitting there, tired and worried about tomorrow, she found herself whispering: God, if You are there, I could really use some help. Maybe that is the most honest prayer there is. Not the one we learned in Sunday school. The one we say when we have run out of ways to make it work on our own.
The question is not whether worry is normal. The question is: what do we do when it follows us to bed every night?
Jesus once said this to people who knew what it meant to work for daily necessities: do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will wear. He pointed to birds. They do not sow or reap or store in barns, yet your Father feeds them. Are we not worth more than they?
He was speaking to people who understood poor harvests, taxes, sickness, the uncertainty of ordinary life. He was not telling them not to plan or care responsibly for their families. The problem is not responsible concern. The problem is worry that begins to convince us everything depends on us alone.
That is an exhausting way to live.
He said something else: your Father already knows what you need. He knows what is in the refrigerator and what is in the checking account. Then He said: seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.
That does not mean we will never face hardship. It means we can stop trying to carry everything alone. We can turn toward Someone who sees us sitting at kitchen tables late at night and say the only prayer we have left, even if it is just: help.
Maybe worry is not the thing we need to fix. Maybe it is the thing that finally shows us we were never meant to hold this all together by ourselves.
Where do you take the question when the numbers will not add up?
What would it mean to stop moving things around and say: I cannot do this alone?
Who are you really asking for help?