TODAY OR TOMORROW?

Saturday: 22nd June, 2019

Reference text: Matthew 6:24-34

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

During my one hundred and seventy mile round trip yesterday, I had one thing at the back of my mind: ‘Get back home safe and sound’-That was the ultimate objective. However, there were subsets of this which had to be achieved along the way including avoiding any recent accident hit routes or those with heavy traffic, finding my way around should my satnav give up and sticking to speed limits. Therefore, I had many short term targets over- arched by an ultimate end goal.

While we prefer not to be given the opportunity to choose between two things which contain identical levels of good, there are times when those decisions have to be made. Therefore today, if required to make a single choice from the pairs presented, which would we deem more important: long-term or short term goals? Today or tomorrow? The present or the future?

Going by Jesus’ words in the Gospel, there seems to be a leaning towards the first word in each pair – short term, today and the present. This should cause us to reflect on our reactions and response when others don’t seem too perturbed about the future, but focused on the present. We deem them such people as short sighted and lacking foresight. But is that really all there is?

We seem to ignore the prospect that the many short term goals ultimately aim to culminate in a long term goal. We forget that the choices made today have influences on tomorrow and that the present is just a blank canvas for the future. My dear, ‘Each day has enough trouble of its own’, indeed each day comes with numerous decisions and choices that have to be made.

We need not live only looking into the future, but also pay attention to the fact that today’s decisions will have implications on how things turn out tomorrow. As much as we like to see the bigger picture all the time, there are moments when life needs to be taken one day and one step at one step at a time. Then, each step needs to be taken in faith.

#sly