That the Lord Has Made
I sat on the couch this evening, thinking about tomorrow's waiting tasks, when a sudden thought crossed my mind: some years from now, I may not remember any of what I do tomorrow. I may do nothing either memorable or noteworthy tomorrow. Probably I'll eat breakfast and drive to school and sit in class and do homework and...
Pull a couple of dates at random, and think with me. January 12, 1995 -- I can recall nothing of how I lived that day. June 6, 1999 -- I draw a complete blank. October 8, 2004 -- I have no idea. Did I have a test that day? Apart from checking a calendar, I don't even know if the 8th was on the weekend.
This tends to put a different perspective on tomorrow, but I don't know that it's a healthy one. Five years from now (maybe even five months from now) July 28, 2008 may be nothing more than a random date in my mind. But lest you think these nothing more than lousy thoughts meant to leave you depressed, let me share three truths which help to ground the soul.
1. Whether or not you remember tomorrow, God does, and He will call you to account for it. This is sobering, for we will have to give an account for every careless work we speak (see Matthew 12:36).
2. Whether or not you remember tomorrow, God does, and He will call you to account for it. At the same time, it is joyful news, for we may do things which we reckon almost nothing that please the Lord and an impact on others (see, for example, Matthew 10:42 and Matthew 25:40).
3. Sanctification includes countless small and easily forgotten choices. Maybe the Lord will open your eyes to something as you read the Bible that will have a lifelong impact. Maybe your diligence to pursue daily study of the Word will be blessed by God as He gives you a greater love for His Word. Maybe by God's grace you will flee a temptation you have struggled with, and win a small-yet-significant victory in the battle against indwelling sin. How many such moments are we actually later able to pinpoint? Few, yet be in faith. As one psalmist prayed for the Lord to incline his heart to the Word (Psalm 119:36), or another for the Lord to unite his heart to fear God's name (Psalm 86:11), I doubt that they ever found a day when they decided to check those prayers off and put a star on the calendar. Put another way, answers to such prayers rarely come with postmark dates.
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)
Labels: ponderings
posted by Jason at 11:10 PM
1 Comments:
I really know what you mean. Today I updated a document I first put together early in my senior year of high school. In this document, I wrote out my academic and vocational goals, listing the various directions I could go over the next ten years and where those different paths might lead me. I found this document the other day, and I was astonished to realized that I could already write about the path that God has taken me on over the past 2 1/2years--- it doesn't seem like it has been that long! Listing options and their foreseeable consequences has been helpful in getting me to think constructively of how I should occupy and equip myself for God's work in my life. I also have found it very sweet to see how God has lead and directed me in ways I didn't even like or imagine at the time that I first wrote this document--- my missionary interest and passion, for example.
Like you wrote in this post, I can't neccessarily look back at random dates and measure the importance of that day's choices and activities--- but I can look back at months and years and seasons and see God's leading, guiding, chastening, blessing hand of mercy shaping my life. Hallelujah!
-muchas bendaciones-
9/02/2008 10:27 PM
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