The Day We're Given--May 12, 2021

The Day We're Given--May 12, 2021

"Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." [Hebrews 3:12-13]

Tomorrow is always a moving target.  Today is right in front of us and won't let us off the hook.

You know the song that Little Orphan Annie sang:  "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow, you're always a day away."  It's easy to fantasize about tomorrow--we can imagine all the problems or troubles we're facing right now will have vanished by then.  We can pretend that the temptations I'm wrestling with will evaporate with tomorrow's morning dew.  We can put off whatever important work needs to be done by telling ourselves it will all be taken care of... tomorrow.  We humans are great at dreaming about tomorrow as a way of conveniently ignoring the needs of today.  

The thing is, today is the day we have been given.  Today is where we live.  And when we get to tomorrow, guess what--it will have transformed into "today."  The tantalizingly close-but-impossible-to-reach thing called "tomorrow" is a slippery little critter that way--always a day away, and always turning our focus from the day in front of us to some imagined scenario just over the horizon.  Like the Beach Boys sang, "Wouldn't it be nice if we were older..." as Brian Wilson painted a picture of some perfect future to his love interest, we can lose ourselves in dreaming about a million possible tomorrows.  The only cost is that it can lead us away from doing what we can with today, the actual day we are living.

I don't mean to bad-mouth long-range planning, and I'm not going to say that all wishful thinking is harmful.  I don't silence my kids or shame them when they start dreaming of being professional basketball players or dancers or doctors or civil engineers, nor do I actively try to stop them from dreaming of whatever thing they want to save their birthday money up for, or ask for as a Christmas present.  But I do think the writer of Hebrews is concerned that we not lose focus on being faithful and making the most of the Kingdom opportunities we are given right here and now, because there are real people with real needs to whom we are being sent in this place and time.  If I spend my free moments wishfully thinking of some future "someday" when I can go and see Paris or take up fly-fishing or finally have the perfect life, I will miss out on the opportunities I am being given here and now to participate in God's work of loving and blessing and restoring all things an all people.  If I'm always picturing some hypothetical ideal "tomorrow" I will miss the chances for seeing grace today, even if it is going to be found in broken things and fractured situations.

And it's that concern that drives the writer of Hebrews here to call us to hold each other accountable every day, "as long as it is called today," to use the time and opportunities we actually have, rather than imagining some dreamy problem-free future day.  It is so easy to make an idol out of our imagined futures that we miss out on seeing the presence of the real and living God who is right here in our actual present situations--yes, even the struggles, the hurts, and the broken places of this day we have been given.  Don't miss today--it's what we've actually got to work with.  Don't keep chasing after some comfortable but imaginary future as a way of not dealing with what Dr. King called "the fierce urgency of now."

Maybe then the question to pose on this day is simply this:  how can I use the day in front of me, this day called "today," in such a way that when it is over and I lay down and give it all up to God, I will not have any regrets about the ways I have loved?  How can I use this day, not just for the ideal smiling people in my dreams of a picture-perfect future, but the actual people and the actual situations put in my path today?  That seems like a day well spent.  Let's get at it.

Lord Jesus, help us to use this day well, and to encourage each other to use the day you have given us for good, for love, for justice, for kindness, for your Reign.