Greetings in Christ,
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” Woody Allen
"Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon
I don’t normally regard either Woody Allen or John Lennon as great Christian theologians, but these quotes attributed to them have a truth in them that we would do well to hear. The simple truth of every human life is that we only have the day in which we are living. Yesterday is gone and we cannot recall it. Tomorrow has not arrived and we may not be here to greet it. Today is all any of us is guaranteed.
This does not mean that the past is something we abandon once it is past. That is a huge mistake for we can learn a great deal from the past. Another quote reminds us, “Those cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” so the past can be a useful teacher for us. While we do not yet possess tomorrow, we can prepare for it. We are good stewards of time if we look to tomorrow needs and prepare for them.
We more we understand the petition of the Lord’s Prayer, ‘give us this day our daily bread’ the more fully treasure the past and look hopefully to the future. As we learn that our lives are lived in God’s time and purpose we discover that in living each day is the way in which the past lives for us and the future is already ours.
Living in the present surrounded by the love and mercy of our Father we discover that all things are ours.