Daily

Excerpts from Chapter 18, Daily, in What Does It Mean to Be Saved?

We all live one day at a time. We remember yesterday. We anticipate tomorrow. But we live today. Each day comes moment by moment. We live in the present moment. In these present moments, we make decisions. Life is a sequence of events. That is the way it works for everyone.

What does it look like for those who are saved as Jesus follower on a daily basis? How does the Jesus follower run a race? One step at a time. Just put one foot in front of the other. How does the Jesus follower fight a war? One battle at a time. How does the Jesus follower as a sheep follow the shepherd? The shepherd takes a step and the sheep takes a step. Sometimes a Jesus follower will become distracted by trying to look around or past the Shepherd rather than following one step at a time. Not a good idea. It boils down to this, “Just do the next thing.”

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34).

Following Jesus is a trust relationship. Trust is based on faith and faith is based on belief. The Jesus follower is trusting the Lord through the guidance of the Holy Spirit to reveal to them what the next thing is. The next thing is the next step. The next thing only comes one at a time.

Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives (Galatians 5:25 NLT).

I have quoted an illustration of doing the next thing from my book, A Disciple is a Jesus Follower and a Jesus Follower is a Disciple. I admit the story is long and gets a bit tedious but this helps to make the point about doing the next thing.

I will illustrate this experience with a story. First, I must set the scene and give background for the story to help you understand what is happening. This setting the scene is similar to what I have done again and again by looking at the setting in which the Jesus follower is learning, applying, and obeying the commands of Jesus.

My wife and I live in a rural community. It is the same location in which I was raised. The area is a farming community. We have a small town located 14 miles north of us, a small town located 15 miles south of us, and a slightly large town located 13 miles east of us. My wife and I moved to what was “back home” for me in 2006 after my parents passed. We purchased the farm from my siblings and settled into the farm. After a year we replaced the old house built in the 1930s with a new house. An Amish neighbor was the builder for our new house.

However, things had changed over the years, and beginning about the year 2000 Amish began to move into the area. Over the years the Amish community has grown to approximately 30-40 families within a ten-mile radius of our home. The Amish community has continued to develop through the years. If you were to draw a straight line, there are three Amish-owned stores within a mile of our home, a grocery store, a bakery, and a variety store. Our nearest neighbor is an Amish family and they have been wonderful friends we not only socialize with them from time to time but also have helped each other many times.

This story involves an Amish man named Edie who at the time of this story was operating a dairy of about 100 cows. I first met Edie when he was helping in the building of our new house. Edie’s dairy was located about a mile and a half from our home. My wife and I fellowship with some other families in a small house church. We take turns hosting the Sunday worship times. As we were en route to the meeting, we passed Edie’s dairy and his cows were out of their corral and some were on the highway and others were in a neighboring alfalfa field. Those on the road were in danger of being hit which would not be good for the cows or the drivers. Those in the fields were at risk of bloating and dying from eating green alfalfa.

The “pop in” next thing for Karen and me to do was we had to tell Edie. Now a little more background. The Amish do not have a church building. They take turns hosting the Sunday meetings. We were used to this happening because on Sunday morning we would see lines of buggies going north, south, east, or west heading to that Sunday’s meeting place. We concluded that Edie was at church somewhere. That morning we had not noticed the usual string of buggies and had no clue where their church might be meeting.

Now the next thing to do was to find out where the Amish were holding Sunday services. However, the actual next thing was to call the folks in our fellowship to tell them the situation and that we would be late. So, we started driving around in search. The clue would be finding a place where there are many buggies parked. We drove and looked and drove and looked some more. We calculated later that we must have driven 10-15 miles looking for them.

Finally, about a mile and a half south of our house we spotted an Amish man who hadn’t gone to church standing out in his yard. He told us where the meeting was located. Ironically, in our searching, we had passed the location. They were meeting in a roof truss manufacturing facility that is located half of a mile off of the main road. It was hard to see all the buggies when we passed by on the road. Actually, measured in a straight line this place was only a little over a mile from our house.

The next thing was to go to their meeting place. I went to the door and my next-door neighbor; Roy saw me and came to see what I wanted. I told him about Edie’s cows and Roy went back inside and found Edie and told him what was happening. Edie came out with his son. Later Roy told me that he thought we had come to get him because his horses were out. That had happened before but that is not part of this story.

The next thing Karen and I did was drive Edie and his son over to their dairy. Edie speculated on how the cows were able to get out of their corral. I don’t remember what his theory was. When we arrived at the sight of the great cow escape, Edie climbed out of the car and begin herding the cows toward the driveway to his house and dairy. We dropped his son off by the driveway so he could direct the cows to where they were supposed to go.

Before we proceeded on to our fellowship, we asked Edie if we could help him with the cows. He answered no, he could get them. You see both Karen and I and Edie understand the shepherd and sheep principle as it relates to livestock. Let me explain. Remember in John 10 in the story of the Good Shepherd that the sheep are owned by the shepherd, the sheep follow the shepherd, the sheep know the shepherd’s voice, the shepherd calls them by name. The sheep will not follow strangers. They are afraid of strangers. The same principle is true of cattle, particularly dairy cattle which are used to being handled daily. Edie’s cows knew him. Karen and I were strangers. Not only did Edie not need our help but we might have been a hindrance to the roundup because we were strangers and the cows would be afraid of us.  This story is charming and light in many ways. This story had a happy ending and no people or animals were injured. The folks in our fellowship were understanding. They were familiar with the dairy because they drove past it when we were meeting at our house. They were also generally familiar with Amish customs and ways.

But looking closer at the next thing principle in following the guidance of the Holy Spirit we see that when the Jesus follower is responding the next thing becomes the only thing. The Jesus follower’s response to the next thing the Spirit has revealed their obedience. Obeying the next thing is the right thing. The sheep following the shepherd is obeying the shepherd (pages 83-87).

Finding Edie was a demonstration of loving your neighbor. Finding Edie was the next thing for that moment in time. Finding Edie was the only thing in obedience to the Spirit’s leading. Finding Edie was the right thing to do.

Often doing the next thing comes with a cost of time, effort, and resources. But the committed Jesus follower will follow that leading and do the next thing.