Yesterday morning, I awoke and found myself saying, "Oh boy, I wish it were last Monday." Why? Because last Monday we were all in the mountains...delighting in the beauty and the coolness and the "margin" (no schedule, no rushing, no urgent agenda)...and especially enjoying all the fine, young fellows who were staying with us for a golf tournament. There's just nothing like the excitement, energy, and fun of being away together with family and friends.
So yep, yesterday, as I awoke and thought of getting back to a more normal routine with all it's chores and ordinary, run-of-the-mill concerns, well, I missed the mountains and the freedom and the crazy fun of the adventure that lay before us. Now it was back to the everyday...and that seemed somehow dull and grey in comparison to a week earlier.
Yet the moment those words left my mouth, that still, small voice whispered--"This is the only Monday, June 23, 2014 you'll ever have. This is your one shot at this particular gift of a day. Are you going to waste it by wishing it away? Are you going to throw it away on the ash heap of regret? Are you going to disdain the irreplaceable gift of these 24 hours graciously given to you by Your Sovereign Father?"
Oh shame on us when we waste even one day God so generously hands to us by looking back with regret or looking ahead with worry. No, this present moment--that's why they call it "present"--is God's gift of today. That's all we have folks--right now.
Yes, praise the Lord, we have the glories of heaven ahead of us, but these irreplaceable moments today are all God has given us to enjoy and savor. Yesterday--gone. Tomorrow--not yet. What's the point of regretting what's done or worrying about what's future. We may not be here tomorrow. Do we really want to waste these few moments we have today in fretting or fussing or worrying or wringing our hands?
The words to Hebrews (what else? But that's what I'm studying this summer) keep coming back to me: "Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness." (Heb.3:7) And "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." (Heb.3:12) And "again He appoints a certain day, 'Today,' saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, 'Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." (Heb.4:7)
Today matters.
"Today is the day of salvation." (2Cor.6:2)
"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Ps.118:24)
Today is the day we can worship and thank and praise our Lord for who He is and what He has done.
Today is the day we can love those God has placed in our lives.
Today is the day we can forgive.
Today is the day we can count our blessings rather than recounting our woes.
Today is the day we can obey what God has told us to do--whether it's writing a letter to encourage a friend or reading a book with our child or unselfishly serving a family member or appreciating our spouse (and telling them!) or truly savoring the sunset or simply enjoying the gift of laughter with someone we love.
Stop waiting for tomorrow. Stop worrying about what's past or what's ahead. Live the abundant, eternal, loving, faithful, joyful life Jesus died to give you, now...right now.
Today. And you know what--our forever faithful Savior will be right there with us tomorrow as well. So let's leave the future--and the past--in His hands. And trust and rest in Him today.
To God be the glory.
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