Only One Thing To Do Today
I was re-watching ‘The Chosen’ a few days ago (it’s a fantastic show, by the way; if you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it!), and one particular line struck me. In season 4, episode 2, Matthew, one of Jesus’s disciples, is talking to Gauis, a Roman soldier. The two had previously worked together, with Gauis guarding Matthew when he was a tax collector for the empire. By this point, however, Matthew had left his old job–and his old life–to follow Jesus. The two haven’t seen each other in a long time and, after the usual small talk, Gauis responds to Matthew’s innocuous queries about his life by explaining that it’s “complicated” and maintaining that Matthew “wouldn’t understand.” In a moment of raw vulnerability, he admits, “I’m helpless.”
After a thoughtful moment, Matthew sighs and says that Gauis is probably right; he wouldn’t necessarily understand the pressures and intricacies of his life. And, even if he could, Matthew himself tends to over-complicate everything. However, he maintains, “my teacher? He makes life very simple. Every morning I wake up, my ideas and fears are jumbled. I feel overwhelmed with doubt and regret. But if I just pause for a moment and remember…I have only one thing to do today: Follow Him. The rest takes care of itself.”
What a beautiful picture. What a realistic picture.
Even as a long-time Christian, I wake up most days feeling overwhelmed. The pressures and worries of work and family life can sometimes feel heavy, not to mention the overall burden of just living in the world at large, with its injustice, poverty, violence, and evil. Add to this shame and regret over sins, both old and new, and Matthew’s early morning doubts and fears become very much my own. Much like Gauis, I, too, can be left feeling helpless, almost paralyzed with defeat.
All this before I even get out of bed.
But what if I–and you–approached the day like Matthew? What if we were able to push aside all of that negativity and remember that, no matter what our to-do list looks like, no matter our calendar, no matter our circumstance, there is only really one this we must do today?
Follow Him.
If we were to truly live this out, imagine how much lighter our burdens would be, how much more joyful even the most mundane of tasks. Because we would no longer have to sustain the pressure of it all being on our shoulders. We would no longer have to have everything figured out. And we would no longer feel alone.
There is something terrifying about surrendering control, but there is also something freeing. And that freedom comes from realizing the beautiful truth in the very thing many of us (myself included) have been trying to deny: “I have only one thing to do today: Follow Him. The rest takes care of itself.”
Just follow Him, friends. He will lead, guide, sustain, provide. More importantly, He will love and strengthen.
And then “the rest [will] take care of itself.”
