Tomorrow

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1

Today is always the day. The moment is always now. We should be careful about our “great big plans” for the future. I do not even know what today will bring. Twenty-four hours from now everything could be totally different. These kinds of sayings should be on our lips often to remind us of how little control we have over what can happen so fast in our lives.

In recent years, I have had a few calamities strike my life. Family members have had their futures changed overnight. My own health has taken some strange turns. Potential financial crises have arisen with a letter or a phone call. People that I thought were secure have crashed within hours. Everything can change so quickly. So how do we handle the reality of the unknown? How do we function with the clock ticking toward the next big interruption to our lives?

We must live day to day, and moment to moment. Yet, at the same time we must realistically have short-term, mid-range and long-range goals. There is a balance to maintain. Somehow between being paralyzed in the tyranny of the urgent, and daydreaming in the “lala” land of future of our dreams and aspirations, we must move forward. This proverb addresses how to deal with one side of the issue for sure. We are warned not to boast. Not to be tempted by the attraction of 'big ideas' and 'big talk'. We should hope and plan and envision without getting ahead of ourselves.

I think we all agree that boasting about the future is not wise. Why? Because we really don't know what can happen between today and tomorrow. Solomon is trying to keep us from embarrassing ourselves. He knows what he is talking about. Things in his life changed overnight, more than once. Someone recently said they 'didn't know as much as they used to'. I asked if maybe 'they were really never as smart as they thought they were'. They agreed.

So how do we address the other side of the issue? Sure, we shouldn't get carried away with boasting about things we should be trusting God about. But, how do we not get stuck in the moment or the short-term. My sense of it is that we desperately lack mid-range goals. We have a daily plan, even a weekly one, but the one to six month plans are usually not as well thought out. For example, if my short term goal is to get by the next thing I dread and my long-range goal is to have everything I need dealt with eventually....... a lot of time is going to pass in between and I bet I will struggle day to day without making much progress or getting there.

The definition of discipline is to have mid-range goals. Between being a survivor and a dreamer is the opportunity to be a servant of the Lord. That takes discipline. So.... no daydreaming and no oversleeping either. I can expend lots of energy in a day and get nowhere, or I can wait and wait and wait for my ship to come in, and still be waiting. One of the hardest things for us to do is to let God not only handle the future and the present, but to let Him be Lord of the process in between. I am committed to moving forward without getting stuck today or this week and without getting stuck in the future too. Whatever today brings it brings and whatever the future holds it holds, my job is to walk obediently month to month, recognizing that He knows my day and my future.

In His Grip,
Pastor Fred

Tweet