Have you ever noticed how we refer to time as a commodity?
We have time, get time, and take time.
We make time, gain time, and lose time.
We squeeze time, waste time, and pass time.
But actually, we inhabit time, as we inhabit space. Just as we can be in only one place, we can occupy only one instant and then another and another. We speak of tomorrow, but we never get there. By the time we might, it’s another today.
What about those yesterdays? Each was once a tomorrow which became a today. You’d think we would learn, over time, to appreciate the present, but all too often it is consumed in the white hot desire for tomorrow or stored in the cold, still vault of the past.
How many sunsets have we missed, waiting for a sunrise?
How many blessings have we missed, looking for a miracle?
How many people have we missed, hoping for a someone?
How many opportunities have we missed, yearning for a break?
How many joys have we missed, drowning in regret?
What would your day look like if you lived like there were no tomorrows? What if there were only today? You would do everything possible to make the most of that day.
What of students who die before graduation, fiances who die before wedding, and the busy workers who die before retirement? What of their lives? Were they cut short? Were they cheated?
No. And if you could talk to them now, their message would be, “Don’t wait for your ‘real life’ to begin. Your life is here. Live. Now.”
God created us to dream and we all must have hopes, plans, and goals. But the Lord has His own plans for each of us, and our plans won’t always coincide with His. Of course, His are better, and it is enough if, on our way to tomorrow, we’ve fully lived our today.
“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16