Take No Thought For Tomorrow
I awoke today to 2.5 inches of snow. Just like they said.
There is something deadening about foreknowledge. I can’t remember the last time I was surprised by a snowstorm. We are mostly surprised, I think, when the weather hypers get it wrong, when the ‘bomb cyclone’ or ‘polar vortex’ fizzles. But either way, we are in thrall to the prophets. We wake up to see if what they predicted comes true, or not. We don’t just wake up . . . to see.
Many of us feel this way about pollsters, the social soothsayers who can tell us what will happen before we vote. Others feel this way about genetic testing, the medical mediums who can tell us what illness or conditions we will develop someday, while we are, today, just fine.
How can we approach each day, each moment with curiosity and wonder? When tomorrow is increasingly dictated today, how can we “take no thought for tomorrow,” as Jesus teaches?
For those who seek to live in Jesus’ now, I think we have to decide what we will and won’t know. For each person, that decision will be different. But we can choose to tune out the prognosticators, to remember that their predictions are often wrong, and to live as if today has ideas of its own. After all, today doesn’t necessarily care about weather forecasts or polls or genetic indicators or market predictions or where AI is heading. Today just offers itself to us in a thousand immediate moments and waits to see if she has any takers.
I like how you brought attention to the thousands of moments that make up a day. Reading your post was one of mine. Thank you for the reminder to honor and appreciate the present!
I wonder, do you think our notions about the past can be similar to those of the future? Do our memories shape our curiosity and wonder in the present?
That’s a great question, Ed. I’m sure that our past shapes how we respond to the present. It can do that in a good way—if our past experiences, where we’ve been sustained by grace or hope or love, give us courage to trust this moment. But past, negative experiences can also make us wary of trusting God in the present—so most of us have to work at unhooking from negative stuff in our past.
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift from God. Here’s to the gift of today. Thanks for the reminder, David!
The snowfall may have been predicted accurately, but the wonder of it is always surprising. Pregnancy tests can predict the arrival of a baby, but it can’t tell you how that arrival will change everything – and isn’t that wonderful? Thanks, David!
I’m more surprised when the weather hypers get it RIGHT! Stock market strategists make millions and by and large they have no clue, their goal is just to sound smart. I’d be a great strategist I’d tell everyone to buy all the time and I’d be right 80% of the time and look like a genius. Soap box, ha.
One day at a time – I strive but definitely fall short. The awareness that I’m striving helps me.
I’m laughing–at your BUY advise, knowing you’d be right 80% of the time!
And I’m nodding in agreement–at the one day at a time, at the falling short, but thankful at least for the awareness of that. That’s how I feel.
Possibly the uncertainty and fear stirred up by predictions of the future siphon off the attention needed on the present?
That’s exactly it for me–I think it’s important to “plan for tomorrow” and make decisions (health, finances, family) now that will increase my chances of a good future–and all of that is good and important and we have to do it to be responsible. But at some point that can become the whole deal, the only real outlook I have. Then I know something’s wrong!
I agree, Lida — today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.