And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? The futility argument: anxiety produces nothing. The hour added to the span of life (or cubit added to one's stature, in alternate translation) is the impossibility that anxiety strains toward: it cannot produce the outcome it seeks. Worry is not merely unpleasant but useless — it neither prevents the feared outcomes nor secures the desired ones. The person who worries all night does not achieve by worrying what could not be achieved by sleeping. The practical futility of anxiety is added to the theological argument from the Father's care: anxiety is both theologically wrong (not trusting the Father) and practically counterproductive.

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