Day One, Part Two

“Sufficient for the day
is its own trouble.”

I am nearly always conscious that the day I’m currently living is the only day I know for certain I have. Strictly speaking, the promise of tomorrow doesn’t exist.  Scripture tells me that if tomorrow comes, it will take care of itself.

I‘m also keenly aware that I’m to be in a perpetual state of readiness because my Bridegroom could come for me… well… now. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” For some years now, I try to call these truths to the fore of my mind at the beginning of each day. They change the way I prepare for and engage in whatever might transpire in the hours ahead of me.

The Apostle Paul gave the whole of himself to whatever was before him, doing so without being distracted by past failures, nor by what may or may not transpire in his future.  He was candid about his shortcomings, battling flesh and spirit. While Paul was sometimes profoundly frustrated by these shortcomings, he didn’t lose sight of the iron clad fact that his existence was ALL about God, about who He was and what He could do. It was NOT about his sufficiency or insufficiency. He embraced God’s economy. His trust in God was complete, welcoming His pervasive influence.

So I ask myself, what is important to God in the day before me? How would He prioritize, manage, maneuver what I’m about to encounter? What do I do with the fact that I’m a fleshly being, scarred and battered and debilitating flawed? What about all my experiences, good and bad, that might influence how I traverse today? And how does that co-exist with Scripture that says I’m a new creation in Christ, the old is passed and all is new?  These are relevant questions that must have a voice. But they mustn’t be the final voice.

Paul was able to give these musings concise, compact language. In the context of his humble admission that he had “not arrived”, he said these oft quoted words….. “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal of the upward call…” So, Paul would walk through the day before Him, cooperating with His Maker, giving God permission to move by His Spirit, immersed in the present.

This is how I imagine the Apostle Paul and God concluding a day….. They draw away, just the two of them, and take stock of what has transpired since dawn. They look at the accounting ledgers. They talk through the people and situations Paul encountered. They discuss what actually happened and what could have happened. They get current. Where Paul was in error, there is confession and repentance. God extends forgiveness and tells him that in His economy, those errors now no longer exist. Paul can choose to live in the freedom of that or choose to carry it, but for God, it’s finished business. There is full on worship as Paul thanks God for His generosity toward him and for the way He saw God at work throughout the day. God blesses him for being malleable in His hands. Lastly, Paul commits himself into God’s care as he goes to sleep. The day is finished.

Will tomorrow come? Only God knows. But like Paul, my certainty is that should the sun rise, God will be there as will His provision. He and I will begin anew, as if no other day matters.

“You do not know
what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life?
For you are a mist
that appears for a little time
and then vanishes.”