We Only Have Today

Denny Mog in Touched by an E-mail, pp. 121-122, has some interesting insights for our New Year. He says, “There are two days in every week about which we need not worry.

One of these days is yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. We cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone!

The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow, with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance. Tomorrow is beyond our immediate control. Tomorrow’s sun will rise, whether in splendor or behind a mask of clouds. But it will rise. Until it does we have no stake in tomorrow for it is as yet unborn.

This leaves only one day: today. Any person can fight the battles of just one day. It is when you add the burdens of two awful eternities – yesterday and tomorrow – that we break down. It is not necessarily the experience of today that disturbs one’s peace of mind. It is often the bitterness of something that has happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.”

Truly said! Unchangeable moments of the past and unknown probabilities of the future can paralyze us into incomprehensible inactions in the present. Dare we afford to allow what has happened or what might happen to strap us into frustrating failure in the present? Now is the time. Today is the day. This is our choice. We truly only have this moment. Whatever the Old Year may have presented or the New Year offer, we have a new start as our present moments unfold. Someone said the past is gone, the future not yet happening. Now is a gift. That’s why we call it the “present.” Let’s ask God to keep us and it in the palm of His hand and give us strength to use it wisely.

One great thing that transcends it all is mentioned in the text of Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ…the same yesterday, today and forever.”

Till next time, Don Johnson, Kirby Pines Chaplain