Today, not Tomorrow

We should not count on tomorrow.  Certainly, it is good to plan on tomorrow.  We all do, but planning and counting on it are two different things.  Planning for tomorrow speaks of preparing for it should it actually comes.  Counting on it implies that there is something which needs doing today, but it going to be delayed until tomorrow.  When Jesus spoke, saying, "one day's trouble is enough for the day," (Matthew 6:34)  He was telling us that the best living is done when we stay in the day we are being given.  To stay in the day we are being given means, "making the most of the time." (Ephesians 5:16)   

The most fragile thing we hold is our life.  It is not some easily broken fine china, or even a family heirloom which is never used, but is always safely displayed. What we never know is when "our soul will be required of us." (Luke 12:20)  There is good reason the Word admonishes us "not to go to let the sun go down on our anger."  (Ephesians 4:26)  It makes no sense to count on tomorrow to ask someone to forgive us, or to forgive them.  It makes no sense to leave home in the morning without a word of kindness or an expression of love to the ones most precious to us.  It makes no sense to hold and nurture our guilt from the past when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us about it in our hearts.  It makes no sense to count on tomorrow to do the important things we need to do today.   

I often remember an old farmer during the days of the civil rights struggles telling his preacher, "I know what the right thing to do is, I just ain't ready to do it yet."  What so often keeps us from admitting we are wrong, or doing the right thing today is our ego.  Our pride.  Or, maybe we are just living in such a hurry we have forgotten how to pay attention to the important stuff which needs doing in the today moment of our life.  It is always a good thing before the day is too far spent to see what matters of the heart need tending and then tending to them.