Future vs. Present Orientation toward Time
25 “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? 26 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? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 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? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The American Puritan middle-class ethic is future-oriented. We constantly sock away money in a 401k or IRA to be certain our financial future is secure. We attend schools for protracted amounts to time to assure we are adequately prepared for the world of work. We move our family to the right neighborhoods, so they can attend the right schools, so they can attend the right colleges, so they can get the right job, so they can move their families to the right neighborhood. We work diligently to prepare for an uncertain future, to minimize as many worries as possible.
Christ calls us, however, to live daily for Him, not worrying about tomorrow.
It is difficult for me to understand this mindset. My entire life has been one of forward planning because I am a visionary who is always thinking about tomorrow. In one way this is good; I am focused on changing the world, bringing God’s Kingdom to earth as it is in Heaven. On the other hand, my focus on tomorrow means that often I either worry (which is essentially a fear based in the future) or I overlook important things happening around me in the here-and-now. I am definitely a future-oriented person.
Phillip, an inner city kid who lived with us for a few years, helped me understand from his perspective. “Mr. Kevin,” he began, “in my world the future is scary and uncertain. I might get arrested, someone in my family is always getting arrested. I might die; you know that young, black men die younger than white dudes. I might work my butt off for a promotion only to see that promotion go to someone else who isn’t black like me. That’s why I have to live for today and why I don’t spend a whole lotta time worrying about tomorrow.”
On the mean streets of Hollygrove, the future is NOT guaranteed. Infant mortality is higher there than most places in New Orleans, according to the health department. The murder rate is higher than the rest of New Orleans, according to my dissertation research. The mean income is 50% less than the city’s, 55% less than the national average and 39% live below the federal poverty line, according to the Community Data Center. It’s a difficult place to live and thus the future is both precarious and frightening. I suppose the reason people there don’t do a better job of planning for their future is because it is so tenuous, so ethereal, and so scary. It’s probably better to live for the moment.
Another time a group of short-term mission students from a suburban church were doing door-to-door evangelism with us. They approached a fire damaged house and knocked, thinking there was no one who lived there but they were following instructions to approach every home. Just as they were about to walk away the door creaked and a wizened, elderly woman stood in the opening asking, “How can I help you?”
The students responded boldly, “We’ve come to tell you about Jesus.”
Her face broke into a smile as she sighed, “Jesus, oh my Jesus.” And for the next half hour she proceeded to witness to THEM! She told them about the addicts who smoked crack adjacent to her home and set it afire. She talked about the fear of leaving home in case anyone might steal the few remaining things the fire hadn’t consumed. And she talked about her daily reliance upon Jesus who saw her through the daily trials of living as a widowed elderly woman in a tough neighborhood.
The kids told me the story that night with tears in their eyes, realizing that her poverty and her decayed home forced her to live in a kind of moment-by-moment reliance upon God’s goodness, grace and mercy. They saw the stark contrast with their own way of life in which their futures were far more certain. From this they learned a lot about relying on Christ.
Perhaps, as this widow taught me, living one day at a time is closer to Jesus’ instructions in Matthew Six.
I am quick to judge those in my neighborhood who don’t sufficiently plan for an uncertain future. I work to get university scholarships for neighborhood students. We teach financial planning seminars at our church. We constantly talk about preparing for lives of leadership where eventually they take over the work we are doing today and create avenues for the next generation to succeed. And I get frustrated when the daily decisions, the daily grind, and the focus on daily survival, force students to drop out of college, or young men to get fired from their jobs, or lead to a choice to deal drugs rather than participate in the formal economy. It does not compute from my cultural lens, complete with its hyper-focus on delayed gratification and future-preparation.
And yet I am instructed by Scripture to focus on today and to trust God’s provision instead of worrying about food, clothes, money and the like.
My future is not guaranteed either. Maybe I have something to learn from the inner city about daily relying upon God.
