EDIM 20 - Today & Tomorrow
I've always put a lot of stock in the fact of tomorrows existence.... no matter those crazy people clamoring over how your day should be full of productive crap. Each day is a gift, to be spent and used for good. Not threshed over until every cranny is tip-top full of this and that and whatever else it was I was supposed to do or should have done. Where's the joy in that?
And tomorrow is there, for when today is over. For when night time comes and not everything is done, there is tomorrow. With this in mind, hope becomes a thing easier to grasp. There will never be a day where everything becomes done. Excluding the end of the world of course.
James 4:13-15,"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money'. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that'."
Far to many veer one way or the other.... those who think only of future ventures and never do anything much, and those who think nothing of the future and get stuck doing nothing much as a consequence. To claim yet another life subject deserving the label "must be balanced" borders on my tolerance towards the the lukewarm crowd. Wherein said crowd everything "must be balanced" to the point where nothing stands out and nothing is fervently sought and nothing is disregarded. Complacency of the worst hypocritical form, because balancing everything simply is not possible -the result of trying being a breakdown to a standstill, failure after crushing failure.
Yet to that carefully selective priorities based "balance" I concede. Tomorrow may never come. Today is only so much. Tomorrow determines what must be done today. Today defines what is yet to do tomorrow. The point is not so much that both are of equal value and should be considered in balance, but that neither should be disregarded. I know that sounds trite and perhaps even lukewarm but the reasoning behind that is a sincere concern over those (including myself) who grasp to one or the other more firmly than is healthy, ending up in devotion to sticking with another set of rules along the lines of, "Today is all there is", or "There is always Tomorrow", end of story.
I could abandon everything and stride out the front door trusting in God absolutely to keep me from starving. Could he do it? Of course! Would he? He cares for all his children, I'd venture to say that he might perhaps bring your train of thought around to ways of bringing in donations to support your expedition. Aka full-time missionary support. Missionary defined at this time as one who "goes out" rather than "works amongst".
To cling fervently with Today might incite some do such things, and it could work out. I wouldn't deny that, but it's also rather brash, ill-planned, and easily overburdening upon others. Consider Paul. The first image that comes to my mind when thinking of Paul is this picture of walking, way out on a dusty road. No backpack, just a staff perhaps, with sandals and a funky turban and striped traveling tunic. Crazy, yes, but Paul doesn't exactly bring up the image of material possession. However, also consider this verse, there's another similar verse I'm quite sure that describes better but I can't seem to find it....
Acts 20:33-35, "I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'."
Paul was a tentmaker. He devoted his life to Jesus Christ and the proclamation of the gospel, and yet when he met the Lord on the road to Damascus and his life turned 180 degrees to living dependent on God, he didn't go out unprepared. Didn't go out so totally inadequate and unequipped that it would end up necessary to depend on others' support.
I know what it is like to be on fire. On fire for Jesus. Wrapped in certainty, lost in love, on that peak of peaks where nothing looks insane anymore. That's an awesome place to be. There's been many insane things started from that point, and carried on to completion. I've been a part of some. I've also been one to run straight off that peak thinking that for sure I could fly -and that it would be easy. Instead, falling straight down the gorge, discovering that flying isn't natural for humans, we run this race. Over hill and down valley, we run this race.
In many ways, today is more highly regarded in the bible. I've no doubt a future entry will be exhortation to live today to the fullest... as tomorrow is uncertain and the need to claim our time before it is claimed by something else is pressing.
This brings us to the flip side. I could, choose to resolutely, adamantly, doggedly cling to preparation. To equipping. To suiting up with armor, to building the mind, to planning courses of action. Personal study, getting a job, achieving a degree, continuing to seminary, attending another retreat, another conference, starting another group. And never going anywhere at all. A tragedy entirely different in route and surprisingly the same in result as that of running straight off the plateau into the trap, the trials, the gorge that will always be there, set by the deceiver himself. I'd add that Satan doesn't care if we are spiritual and learned and wise and knowledgeable, as long as we aren't spiritually active.
It seems Romans 12:1-2 wraps both today and tomorrow together, a good passage to close with. Also, I've a roaring headache and it seems continuing this subject will only result in human fallacy and redundancy. God's word last word.
"Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -his good, pleasing and perfect will."
And tomorrow is there, for when today is over. For when night time comes and not everything is done, there is tomorrow. With this in mind, hope becomes a thing easier to grasp. There will never be a day where everything becomes done. Excluding the end of the world of course.
James 4:13-15,"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money'. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that'."
Far to many veer one way or the other.... those who think only of future ventures and never do anything much, and those who think nothing of the future and get stuck doing nothing much as a consequence. To claim yet another life subject deserving the label "must be balanced" borders on my tolerance towards the the lukewarm crowd. Wherein said crowd everything "must be balanced" to the point where nothing stands out and nothing is fervently sought and nothing is disregarded. Complacency of the worst hypocritical form, because balancing everything simply is not possible -the result of trying being a breakdown to a standstill, failure after crushing failure.
Yet to that carefully selective priorities based "balance" I concede. Tomorrow may never come. Today is only so much. Tomorrow determines what must be done today. Today defines what is yet to do tomorrow. The point is not so much that both are of equal value and should be considered in balance, but that neither should be disregarded. I know that sounds trite and perhaps even lukewarm but the reasoning behind that is a sincere concern over those (including myself) who grasp to one or the other more firmly than is healthy, ending up in devotion to sticking with another set of rules along the lines of, "Today is all there is", or "There is always Tomorrow", end of story.
I could abandon everything and stride out the front door trusting in God absolutely to keep me from starving. Could he do it? Of course! Would he? He cares for all his children, I'd venture to say that he might perhaps bring your train of thought around to ways of bringing in donations to support your expedition. Aka full-time missionary support. Missionary defined at this time as one who "goes out" rather than "works amongst".
To cling fervently with Today might incite some do such things, and it could work out. I wouldn't deny that, but it's also rather brash, ill-planned, and easily overburdening upon others. Consider Paul. The first image that comes to my mind when thinking of Paul is this picture of walking, way out on a dusty road. No backpack, just a staff perhaps, with sandals and a funky turban and striped traveling tunic. Crazy, yes, but Paul doesn't exactly bring up the image of material possession. However, also consider this verse, there's another similar verse I'm quite sure that describes better but I can't seem to find it....
Acts 20:33-35, "I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'."
Paul was a tentmaker. He devoted his life to Jesus Christ and the proclamation of the gospel, and yet when he met the Lord on the road to Damascus and his life turned 180 degrees to living dependent on God, he didn't go out unprepared. Didn't go out so totally inadequate and unequipped that it would end up necessary to depend on others' support.
I know what it is like to be on fire. On fire for Jesus. Wrapped in certainty, lost in love, on that peak of peaks where nothing looks insane anymore. That's an awesome place to be. There's been many insane things started from that point, and carried on to completion. I've been a part of some. I've also been one to run straight off that peak thinking that for sure I could fly -and that it would be easy. Instead, falling straight down the gorge, discovering that flying isn't natural for humans, we run this race. Over hill and down valley, we run this race.
In many ways, today is more highly regarded in the bible. I've no doubt a future entry will be exhortation to live today to the fullest... as tomorrow is uncertain and the need to claim our time before it is claimed by something else is pressing.
This brings us to the flip side. I could, choose to resolutely, adamantly, doggedly cling to preparation. To equipping. To suiting up with armor, to building the mind, to planning courses of action. Personal study, getting a job, achieving a degree, continuing to seminary, attending another retreat, another conference, starting another group. And never going anywhere at all. A tragedy entirely different in route and surprisingly the same in result as that of running straight off the plateau into the trap, the trials, the gorge that will always be there, set by the deceiver himself. I'd add that Satan doesn't care if we are spiritual and learned and wise and knowledgeable, as long as we aren't spiritually active.
It seems Romans 12:1-2 wraps both today and tomorrow together, a good passage to close with. Also, I've a roaring headache and it seems continuing this subject will only result in human fallacy and redundancy. God's word last word.
"Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -his good, pleasing and perfect will."
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