La Venir

”It’s a time they call la venir – the coming, the future. There is much we do not and cannot know about that time. We are all curious about it, but it really cannot be known. The Frenchmen who came to Nielle today do not understand that. They asked me many questions about the future – as if it could be known! When I told them we don’t know what will be in the future, they became very angry…They went away angry too, but I think they are often like that. Worrying about the future can do that to you.”

He took another deep breath and then continued. “We are not like them. To them, time is everything. Did you see those silver circles on their wrists? Those things measure the day into very little pieces….Frenchmen think that counting time is very important. A day can be divided into twenty-four parts, and each of those parts can be divided into sixty smaller parts.” He didn’t tell us that those smaller parts could be divided into sixty even smaller parts. Either he didn’t want to confuse us, or perhaps he didn’t know about seconds that tick away all the time.

Then came a profound statement. “The smaller that men can measure the day, the more angry they seem to be,” he said with a shake of his head.

“The present is now – the days we live today. This is God’s gift to us. It is meant to be enjoyed and lived to the fullest. The present will flow by us, of course, and become the past. That is the way of a river, and that is the way of time. The Frenchmen cannot wait for the future to arrive. They crane their necks to see around the bend in the river…To them, it seems that the present is only a vantage point to better see around the bend to the future. They miss so much of the joy of today all around them. Did you notice that as they stormed into our village, they didn’t notice it is the best of the mango season? Though we offered them peanuts, they did not even taste them. They did not hear the birds in the trees or the laughter in the marketplace…Because they strain to see around the bend in the river, the present nearly knocks them down as it swirls around their knees.”

He was not meaning to say that forecasting and planning are bad. He himself looked ahead to the growing season and directed that crops be planted on time so there would be a future harvest. But when it came to questions about unknowable things, he refused to be anxious about them. He emphasized two main points to us all, young and old:

One, live today completely. It is important in its own right.

Two, tomorrow lies in the good hands of God. Therefore, we do not need to be restless about it.

The underlying philosophy said that today was really all we had, so we should relish it to the full. People matter. Food matters. Smells matter. Stories matter. Dancing matters. Hard work matters. Now matters.

-- Dr. Wess Stafford, Too Small To Ignore