Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus— Philippians 4:67
One of my favorite episodes of The Andy Griffith Show is titled, “The Sermon for Today.” In this episode we actually see the residents of Mayberry in church on Sunday morning at
Like many families, Andy, Opie, and Aunt Bee are hurrying to get ready for the service. This particular Sunday,
The following is Dr. Breen’s sermon, word-for-word;
As I stood there during the singing of the hymn, I asked myself, “What message have I to bring these good people of Mayberry?” And I was reminded of an instance. A young man came to me recently and said he; “Dr. Breen, what is the meaning of it all?” And I said to him, “Young man, I'm glad you ask that question. Whither…whiter are we headed and why?
Why this senseless rush, this mad pursuit, this frantic competition, this pace that kills? Why do we drive ourselves as we do? In our furious race these days to conquer outer space, are we perhaps not forgetting inner space? Shall we find the true meaning of life by fleeing from it?
Consider…consider how we live our lives today. Everything is run, run, run. We bolt our breakfast, we scan the headlines, we race to the office. The full schedule and split second: these are our gauges of success. We drive ourselves from morn to night. We have forgotten the meaning of the word relaxation. What has become of the old-fashioned ways, the simple pleasures of the past?
Who can forget, for example, the old-fashioned band concert at twilight on the village green. The joy, the serenity of just sitting and listening. This is lost to us, and this we should strive to recapture, a simple innocent pleasure.
And so I say to you, dear friends, relax…slow down…take it easy…
What’s your hurry?
What indeed, friends, is your hurry?
It is ironic that this episode aired
Mayberry is the epitome of the simpler life and the last place that needs to hear a sermon on slowing down. We can all see Andy sitting on his front porch, playing guitar or stopping by the courthouse to sip a cup of coffee with Barney.
Yet the townspeople of Mayberry made it their point to apply Dr. Breen’s message and almost ended up doing themselves in.
After Sunday supper, Aunt Bee, Andy, and Barney reflect on the sermon. They discuss how nice it would be to revive the old band concerts from the past. Shortly after, Andy has the band practicing.
Aunt Bee and her best friend Clara start to sew the old uniforms together and Barney gets Gomer to help him build a bandstand. What started as an ambitious idea to go back to a simpler life, the town soon finds out this was much more an ordeal than expected.
The band was woefully out of practice, the uniforms torn and beyond repair, the bandstand destroyed as Gomer uses a hammer to whack a spider. In their efforts to revive a tradition of yesterday, Andy, Barney, Aunt Bee and the gang have completely worn themselves out, and they don’t even have a band concert to show for their efforts!
This episode vividly illustrates the trouble we go just to slow down our lives. We find it hard to relax, so we must have a plan or project or somewhere to go. We can’t seem to just enjoy the peace and quiet.
Using the guise of taking it easy, we end up busier than ever before. To complicate matters, we even can feel guilty about taking it easy. Dr. Breen in his sermon highlighted that many feel a full schedule and the split second are the measure of our success. Is it really?
It’s hard to believe that episode aired forty-five years ago and we find ourselves today asking the same questions. Imagine life in 1963 and how hurried it might have seemed to those who only knew what life was at that time. But compare that world to the one we live in today. If life was too fast back then, what would Dr. Breen think of life in 2008?
Let us enjoy the simpler pleasures of life—the smile on a baby’s face, taking a walk and feeling the warmth of the sun on your face, listening to the bird sing in your backyard, or watching your dog sleep on the floor.
Think of a few simple pleasures you can take notice of today and give God a smile!
Be beautiful inside, in your hearts, with the lasting charm of a gentle and quiet spirit which is so precious to God--I Peter 3:4
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