Today Is the Day
At age forty-six* I shredded my mother’s papers. It was ten months after she died, at age eighty-seven. The documents spanned twenty years of life, hers and mine. Hundreds of bills fretted over. Hundreds of checks written. Thousands of moments represented: fears, pain, courage, labor, dreams, and prayers. A fourth of her life. Half of mine.
Two evenings spent, shredded it all.
Life is short. Shorter than I imagined. You think eighty-seven years is a long time. But it’s not, not when you’re the one living it. And you are.
I don’t know when my time will come, but I know that it will seem to me then as though no time had passed at all. “How did I get to be so old?” I will ask. I know, because I’ve asked it already. And what will I say then that I’ve lived for? Will I say that I’ve lived and loved well? If my time comes today I’m afraid I’ll say “no”.
Today is the day to repent.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:24-31
Today is the day to do the one thing God wants, ”seek him and…reach out for him and find him.” Oh, He makes it so simple. Why do I insist on complicating things?
*Today I found this article which I wrote nearly three years ago in a private blog that I am now in the process of re-purposing. It didn't hurt so much to read it now as I did when I first wrote it. In fact, it encouraged me. So I've moved it here.
Two evenings spent, shredded it all.
Life is short. Shorter than I imagined. You think eighty-seven years is a long time. But it’s not, not when you’re the one living it. And you are.
I don’t know when my time will come, but I know that it will seem to me then as though no time had passed at all. “How did I get to be so old?” I will ask. I know, because I’ve asked it already. And what will I say then that I’ve lived for? Will I say that I’ve lived and loved well? If my time comes today I’m afraid I’ll say “no”.
Today is the day to repent.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:24-31
Today is the day to do the one thing God wants, ”seek him and…reach out for him and find him.” Oh, He makes it so simple. Why do I insist on complicating things?
*Today I found this article which I wrote nearly three years ago in a private blog that I am now in the process of re-purposing. It didn't hurt so much to read it now as I did when I first wrote it. In fact, it encouraged me. So I've moved it here.
Comments
Good Reminder.
A to Remember Reminder.
And it gives hope for me to read that today in reading you were encouraged.
Our salvation is near now then when we first believed.
Heaven is nearer now than when I first called upon the Lord.
But Today is the Lord's. And I am His and he is mine.
I hope you are well. It feels like quite some time since we've talked.