gospel of Thomas 36

Jesus said, "Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what you will wear."

Ah, this is a lovely teaching from Jesus. And rather funny, isn't it? Don't be concerned day and night about what you're going to wear.

Of course, what clothes we are going to put on is the light side of it. And some people do worry rather a lot about how they dress: what this clothing is saying about themselves; what appearance they give through their clothing. Jesus says, don't worry about it. Don't be concerned. Don't even think about it. Just throw on any old clothes – whatever comes to hand at the time when you are dressing. It's good enough.

But of course, Jesus is not just talking about clothes. When he says, don't be concerned about what you will wear, he's talking about all the masks that we put on – our whole persona, the act we put on to portray a certain personality, a certain individual. But it's an act.

And if you look closely, you will see that you put on different clothes in different situations. You are one person at work, and another person whilst sitting drinking coffee with your friends. You'll be yet another person when you are alone in the house, and another when you are going on holiday. We put on different masks to suit the situation. And if we worry, if we're concerned about how we're going to be perceived by others, then all this becomes a tremendous burden. And much of our life can be consumed by fruitless minutes and hours, days and weeks, spent worrying about how we should be behaving, how we should appear to others.

Jesus says, don't be concerned. Don't be concerned about any of this. Don't even think about it in advance. Just go through the day naturally – being light, being spontaneous in the moment, responding in the moment, without any forethought, without any preparation. There's no need to rehearse things. There's no need to plan who you are going to be in a particular situation. It is much better to be natural. Just be yourself, is what Jesus is saying. In every moment, just be yourself. There's no need to worry about it.

The worrying doesn't help anyway. It just makes us false. Putting on these masks – nobody is really fooled. Everyone just feels each other to be playing a game, acting, insincere, false. People will love you much better if you are natural, just yourself, as you are. And they will trust you, because you are no longer putting on masks; no longer acting some role; no longer behaving from a set of rules as to what you should and should not do, what you should and should not be.

Returning to ourself is a huge part of the spiritual journey. So drop all these concerns about what you should be. And just allow yourself to be whatever you are, from moment to moment, without any worry, without any concern. With this approach, you will already have covered much of the path. You will be heading home. It's so simple. Just don't worry about who you are. Don't worry about who you should be. It's not your concern. Relax.

Allow yourself to be that which you are.