Tomorrow

As the little orphan Annie so famously sang, Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow. You're only a day away." There's a flaw in what she was singing about though. She was singing about the possibilities and the what if's that may come for her tomorrow. But as with any day, once that clock rolls past midnight that which was tomorrow becomes today while tomorrow continues to slip right from your grasp. 

Since October, my church has been having a youth service monthly to pour into our youth. There are many things that they could be out and getting into on a weekend night, yet they choose to be in the house of God. Over the course of the months we have had the services, these youngsters have dove head first into drawing the line of where they stand, what the believe and pursuing God with a passion that I could only wish that I had when I was their age.

The message that was brought in the most recent service was by our assistant pastor and it was on this very topic of tomorrow. As he read the introductory scripture in James 4. He started with verses 13-14 but let me share through verse 17 here: "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." He shared these verses and then began to speak about how we go about our lives making plans. 

As he shared, he was speaking about those who plan and plan for things in the future yet fail to accomplish anything in "today". My mind went back to a September day last year when Matt received some good news regarding his disability. Mind you, we were struggling financially at that point because of his inability to work, yet as soon as the lady on the phone said "settlement reached" or whatever words she used, the plans started. He lit up like I hadn't seen in years talking about places we could go and things we could do, vacations we had never taken. In the moment, it wasn't about paying what we owed or putting back for a rainy day, it was only about the plans of tomorrow. In the few days which followed, never once did he thank God for provision or reach out to find repentance and get himself ready for eternity. By Friday evening every plan that he had made was gone in an instant as he stepped into his own eternity.

As Bro. Nathan continued speaking, he brought out how anxiety causes us to live in tomorrow instead of living in today. He shared about the prodigal son and the anxiety which led him to leave. The thought of having to wait for what would one day be his caused him to want what was his now instead of tomorrow. But we all know how that story goes. He sqanders it all which leads to more anxiety because of "Now what do I do? How am I going to make it. I have no money. No place to stay." He finds himself in a pig pen eating the slop fed to the swine. The brighter "tomorrow" that he had envisioned for himself was just a painful memory of what he left in his yesterday. He lifted himself up and made a decision for today. Returning to his father's house as a failure in his own eyes, he determined that he would be a servant. But, his father had a different outcome for his today. While he returned as the failed son the father welcomed him as a favored heir.

In our society today, we look for the quick and the easy way to make it. For many, credit cards and loans taken out to provide the "means" to live a lifestyle that exalts themselves far beyond that which they are. They, as the saying goes, rob Peter to pay Paul just to keep an appearance up. "Keeping up with the Joneses" as the old adage goes. But this isn't just in the natural. It is also in the spiritual realm as well. Of course we have to work to provide a living for ourselves. But how often do we work to take time away from God? We put in the hours at what pays our bills then come home to work on everything else. We have to clean the house, wash the clothes, cook dinner, clean the dishes, for those with animals, add in feeding, watering and caring for the animals.  If you sleep 8 hours a day, work 8 hours a day that leaves 8 hours a day for everything else. Should be plenty of time, right? Spend an hour cooking dinner, 30 minutes eating dinner, 30 minutes cleaning up the kitchen, put in laundry that takes an hour to wash, work on cleaning the house during that time, now it's time to dry the clothes, thats another hour and a half with my dryer then spend 30 minutes folding and putting away. There went 4 1/2 hours of the 8 you had left. Now, here is where rubber meets the road, how do you spend that last 3 1/2 hours? Do you plop down in front of the tv and mindlessly watch some show until it's time to go to bed? Do you grab your phone and mindlessly scroll social media or play games? Do you grab your phone and call someone to talk for an hour or so? Or do you grab your Bible to spend time with God followed by prayer?

So many fall into that first level of popping down in front of the tv and never give a second thought to God. As they lay their head down on the pillow, there's a whispered " Forgive me God, I'll do better tomorrow" as they drift off to sleep. But as Garth Brooks sang, and please let me take a little liberty here with the words, "If tomorrow never comes, will He know how much I loved Him. Did I try in every way to show Him everyday that He's my only One." 

The enemy's desire is to keep us busy and distracted so that we don't think about Him. He wants us stuck in the mindset where the prodigal was, of being a failure and that we will never be worthy of coming home to the Father. The truth is, He never left from where you parted ways.  He has stood right there with His eyes on the horizon with the anticipation of tomorrow.  That's the key: anticipation over anxiety. Both the father and the prodigal looked for tomorrow but the mindset they had determined their outcome. 

I will close out with this scripture from Matthew 6:25-34, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."