Do the Next Thing
Mark 1:29-39
by Jim Westmoreland
The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of an incident that may have
seemed insignificant at the time, but had a profound influence on the rest of his life.
The winter he was 9, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no-
nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped
him. He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow's flight,
and then young Frank's tracks meandering all over the field. "Notice how your tracks
wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again," his uncle
said. "And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in
that."
Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how the experience had contributed to
his philosophy in life. "I determined right then," he'd say with a twinkle in
his eye, "not to miss the things in life, that my uncle had missed." Frank Lloyd
Wright saw in those tracks what his uncle could not: It is easy to let the demands of life
keep us from the joys of living. Jesus knew that both His joy and service were found in
going on to the next town, expanding his ministry throughout Galilee, teaching and
touching and healing.
In our text today Jesus has just called Andrew and Simon, James and John to be His
disciples. They have gone to the synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath. When they left the
synagogue, they immediately went to Andrew and Simon's house. Simon's mother-in-law was
there sick with a fever. Jesus went to her and healed her. After supper, the whole city
had gathered at their door. Jesus made himself available and healed many. The scripture
says that he healed many who were ill and cast out many demons, but He didn't allow the
demons to speak, because they knew who He was.
Jesus had a full day and night teaching and healing the many who came to Him. Jesus knew
how to deal with the pressures to live to please everyone else, to let other people tell
Him what is important and what He should be doing. Many people face that kind of pressure,
too. We live in a era of burnout. People work hard trying to please their bosses, trying
to keep up, trying to get the job done. We often go beyond the eight-hour day, and we
begin to feel the stresses of "burnout." John Stroman, a pastor and writer,
said, " Burnout is not the result of too much activity. It is the result of the
woring kind of activity." --John A. Stroman, God's Downward Mobility, CSS Publishing,
1996.
Jesus got up early the next morning, while it was still dark and went to a
lonely place (meaning that there was no one else around) and He prayed. C. S. Lewis, the
great Christian writer said the moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes
for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in
shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view,
letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. That's what Jesus did
. . . so that He would be prepared for the crowds and the pressures that would come with
the day. For Jesus, prayer time was time with the Father; it was time away from the crowds
and pressures of this world. It was time to listen to the direction of the Father; it was
time to set His agenda in line with the father's and not everyone else's.
But some of us are very uncomfortable with the silence. We are uncomfortable when it gets
quiet enough to hear our own heart beat. We are uncomfortable looking in the mirror of
self-awareness to meditate on who we really are and how God might lead us to live and what
He might lead us to do.
A father took his small son with him to town one day to run some errands. When lunchtime
arrived, the two of them went to a familiar diner for a sandwich. The father sat down on
one of the stools at the counter and lifted the boy up to the seat beside him. They
ordered lunch, and when the waiter brought the food, the father said, "Son, we'll
just have a silent prayer."
Dad got through praying first and waited for the boy to finish his prayer, but he just sat
with his head bowed for an unusually long time. When he finally looked up, his father
asked him, "What in the world were you praying about all that time?" With the
innocence and honesty of a child, he replied, "How do I know? It was a silent
prayer."
Jesus knew how to pray and open Himself to do the will of the Father. While He was still
praying, Simon and his buddies went looking for Jesus. When they found Him, they said,
"Everyone is searching for you." --Our Daily Bread. Surely, to know that
everyone wanted you sounded good. It was knowing that you were popular and made a
difference. There was the temptation to let the crowd take control of Him and His agenda.
But, Jesus knew that to get caught up in their distractions would result in His mission
becoming an "Unfinished Work." How many of the good things that we have set out
to do sit along the way as an "Unfinished Work" because we got distracted?
Cornell University Researchers wanted to know what people most regret. After surveying
university employees, students, retired professors, and nursing home residents, they found
that twice as many people were bothered more by what they did not do rather than what they
had done. Missed opportunities were the most common of all regrets. Most regrets were from
those who were unwilling to take chances. They feared too much the short-term consequence
that failure would bring. --Health Magazine, March April of 1995.
Too often, we value "comfort" and the calmness and predictability of the way
things are. This temptation to choose "comfort" leads us to avoid doing
the next thing that God has ready for us! Don't let the opportunity to do
the next thing pass you by!
How did Jesus respond to the stresses to meet other's expectations or the temptation to
choose "comfort" and not rock the boat? When the disciples found him and said
that everyone was searching for Him, he responded in v. 38 and 39 by saying "Let us
go on, let us continue, let us do the next thing, by going to the
neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came
out to do."
Jesus had already done good. He had healed many the night before. But, notice, the past
good that He had done did not sidetrack Him from doing the next thing!
Jesus did not let the successes of the past control today. We can be controlled by both
our past successes and our past failures. Jesus is not concerned about either of them. He
is concerned about people who say they are His followers and disciples listening in their
prayers and meditations to what He has to say to them today so that they can hear, not
about the past, not about what if, but about doing the next thing, as
Jesus said to His disciples, "Let us go on."
Nature knows that every day is a new day and that you must start fresh because you can't
live in the past. In the jungle every morning, when the sun comes up, a gazelle wakes. He
knows that he must outrun the fastest lion or he will be eaten. When the sun comes up, the
lion wakes. He knows that he must outrun the slowest gazelle, or he will starve. In the
end it doesn't matter whether you are a lion or gazelle; when the sun comes up, you better
be running. -- Ibid, God's Downward Mobility.
Whether we are running, walking, limping or hobbling, God says to each of us, "Let us
continue. Let's do the next thing." So, when the sun comes up in the
morning, let's all be running.