"Next" carries with it a very linear thought process. After this, then this is "next". Here in Latin America, exactly zero consideration is given to this concept of "next". There is no "next" here; only an infinite abyss of possibility. There are no schedules, no plans, no forethought...only the here and now. What happened a year ago, or a minute ago, was incredibly memorable. What is happening right now is monumental, the notion of thinking about tomorrow is completely off the radar screen.
This morning, before office prayer time, this slight frustration with the local culture instantly and beautifully morphed into a Biblical truth.
"Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him."
For their entire lives, Peter, James, John and Andrew had been constantly living and working with one thing in mind...."next". Mending their nets for the next day. Fishing for the next meal. Rowing over to the next hot fishing spot. How many fish would be in the next haul? Would there be enough to eat the next day?
Suddenly, along comes a man named Jesus....and the journey and struggle to rid these men's minds of the very concept of "next" and replace it with the concept of "follow" or "obey" begins. For the next 3 years, Jesus works diligently to renew their minds and implant in them a desire to follow and obey, and to extract the selfish and prideful notion that we must always know what's "next". The very concept of obedience does not allow us the convenience of knowing or caring what comes "next".
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
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