I remember as a high school senior going to a religious retreat and listening to a recording supposedly between the devil and one of his soul recruiters, who was having little to no luck at populating hell. The devil gave him one more chance to succeed before suffering the vilest of consequences. The next morning there was a proverbial traffic jam of souls trying to get in. When the devil asked his protégé for his secret to success, the newly crowned supreme capturer of souls said, “I planted an irresistible seed that none of them seem to be able to refuse.” That seed was, I’ll do it tomorrow. Some would tell you procrastination is a sin. That is not my point. My point is you cannot wait until tomorrow to do what you know is right in the eyes of the Lord. You can’t wait until tomorrow to get your life straight, to apologize, to ask for forgiveness. You cannot wait until you’re successful, have a lot of money in the bank, sow your wild oats before you get it together and live according to the Word of God.
As my illustration suggests, the habit forming nature of believing ‘you can do it tomorrow’ becomes a state of mind that imprisons you from living to your fullest potential today. That potential just so happens to be the reality that God had in mind when He created you and me. If I could do half of what I plan to do tomorrow, today, I think I’d be the ruler of the universe by now, the master of my fate. The fallacy of a belief that you’ll do it tomorrow, presupposes tomorrow will be there waiting on you, as if you have some control over the time you are allotted and the quality of that time you have here on earth. Now as much as we know this is true, many of us still find ourselves waiting for tomorrow to really get our act together. All we need is a little more time, or money, or a new opportunity; a new man or a woman, a new relationship or a new job that you’re going to start looking for tomorrow when you have some time? No wonder the devil’s protégé was so successful. Once the seed of tomorrow is planted, we dwell on the possibilities of today’s dreams. The do nothing results will damn your soul for eternity.
Living for tomorrow is not only foolish. It’s dangerous because we waste God’s greatest gift to us I believe. And that gift is time. God gave the Israelites manna for a day. “Give us our daily bread” is what the prayer says. “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” Proverbs 27:1. And here’s my favorite. Luke 12: 13-21, The Parable of the Rich Fool. Here is a guy who in essence saved for his pending retirement. “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barn and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grains and goods. And I’ll say to myself “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ God actually calls him a fool and takes his life that very night to prove {as if God needed to prove anything to you or me} who’s God. How many folk do you know who wish they had one more day to tell somebody how much they meant to that person? If you should close your eyes tonight never to awaken again, would you regret what you didn’t say to somebody and meant to say yesterday but you’ll get around to it tomorrow and never did? Or, would somebody you know miss you so much because they were going to tell you tomorrow how much they cared about you, but you died last night? This is like the stock market. You cannot time it. And you cannot time the moment of your death anymore than you controlled the moment of your birth. Today, right now, is all you have. Your life time begins and ends right now; that is unless you plan on really living it up tomorrow. “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God.”
May God bless and keep you always,James, jaws@dallasweekly.com