I hear ya - still a swimming pool is a good water source, a few bags of cheap rice and ramen, some sterno and you can hold out for a while providing youre warm
I do not know where you live.
Two or three years ago we had a summer Tornado and an early winter ice storm. Both storms left us without power for almost two weeks.
While we were not drinking out of puddles or rummaging through the trash cans for food...we WERE driving forty minutes to get gasoline. And we sat in line for it.
We were cold. We did not have a generator. We were showering at work and at the gym.
THAT is why I prep.
(I learned reloading because when I go to the range I like to shoot a lot.)
Isn't prepping jut a form of insurance?
Like car insurance, home insurance, etc.?
Except that unless you have an auto accident or house fire, after the year is up on those kinds of insurance you have nothing and the insurance company has your money.
With prepping, at the end of the year you still have your preps: food you can eat, water you can drink, stored fuel you can use, guns that work and ammo that shoots.
Proverbs 27:12 (NLT) ”A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.“
“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Timothy 5:8 (KJV)
In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20
But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn’t sound the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their deaths. They will die in their sins, but I will hold the watchman accountable. Ezekiel 33:6
To think that you are going through life without any thought of tomorrow is probably disingenuous. I don't know you, but if you have insurance, savings etc. you are giving thought to tomorrow. And as far as "wars and rumors of wars", that has always been and unprepared (and even prepared) people have been died anyway. We are not necessarily thinking "end of times" but possibly making it through a rough patch.
“...there’s about a 50% chance things will go terribly wrong, I’m not ready to commit to prepping.”
Storing water (having a way to sanitize water), food, protection, meds, heat, cooling, etc. is life insurance. Right now, you have no life insurance but believe there is one change in two, you will need it. If you have a family, I wouldn’t put their lives in jeopardy with those kinds of odds. I hope you change your mind before it is too late.
“...consume my life. In that case it’s a direct violation of “take no thought for tomorrow...”
You likely have a job in order to provide the necessities of life. Using the quote above, you are violating that now.
Scripture relating to preparedness:
Ezekiel 38:7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Luke 22:36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.