A New Day: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Did you know you’ve received a gift today? No, I haven’t been spying on what might be on your front porch. “Then what gift is that?” you ask. It’s a gift of a new day; the gift of life. Another opportunity to use your God-given talents, abilities, experiences and passions in an endless variety of ways, not only for your own enjoyment and satisfaction, but also for the benefit of others.

 

It’s easy to overlook this “gift.” We go to bed each night, often with a full slate of activities planned for the following day. We make plans for the next week, next month, even months or years in advance. All with the assumption that tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that will automatically come rolling along without interruption.

And yet, we know down deep that the next minute is not guaranteed, much less the next hour, day, week or month. I’m not intending to seem morbid or fatalistic, but simply to encourage a great appreciation of each moment that we have. Because the fact is, once a moment passes, there’s no way of retrieving it.

 

Having had several significant health episodes in my life, I’ve gained a much greater understanding of what a gift each new day is. I still remember the many visits I made as a cardiac volunteer, stopping at the rooms of patients who had just undergone open-heart surgery, as I had years earlier. Many of them also had a new or renewed grasp of the value of each day, agreeing that it indeed was a gift of great worth. Especially after you’ve practically been at death’s doorstep.

 

I’m often reminded of Ephesians 5:16, which talks about “redeeming the time” or “making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil.” This is not to say that time itself is bad or evil, but that it passes quickly, and there’s no “lost and found” for missed opportunities. As the verses that precede and follow observe, “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise…. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

 

Like many people, I wrestle with the temptation to squander time, to act nonchalantly about my use of it, as if I’ve got all the time in the world. Sometimes I succumb to that temptation, watching too much TV or surfing the Internet, or failing to recognize how a seemingly random personal encounter could be a divine appointment. 

 

While I know there’s no point in putting myself on a perpetual guilt trip for not maximizing every single minute, I try to be more aware of circumstances so I can truly “make the most of the opportunity.”

 

In terms of serving as representatives of Jesus Christ in a world that seems to have little interest in Him, another passage – also written by the apostle Paul – conveys similar sentiments: “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:5-6).

 

There’s a lot packed into these two verses. We’re to use wisdom whenever we interact with people outside the faith. We should recognize opportunities for what they are. Rather than being argumentative or dogmatic, we should be gracious in conversing with them. And as we pray about what to say, our words should be “salty” in the sense that they might create a spiritual thirst and at the same time, not leave our hearers with a bad taste in their mouth.

Regardless of whether you’re reading this early in the morning, at midday or toward the conclusion of the day, it would be good to recognize the gift of today, and also the Giver. As Psalm 118:24 reminds us, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” 

The Challenges of Handling the Times of Our Lives

Does it ever seem to you that time moves faster some days than others? Scientists will tell us that the passage of time is constant, but haven’t you had moments when you said to someone, “Man, it seems like today has gone on forever,” and they responded, “It sure has.” Or, “Wow, this day has just flown by,” and your friend replied, “Yes, I know!”

 

The years can be like that, too. In just a few days I’ll mark the 14th anniversary of my open-heart surgery. For a long time it seemed as if my surgery were just days ago; I could vividly remember the days leading up to it, the day I was wheeled into the OR, and the days, weeks and months of recovery afterward. But now, it seems like an entire lifetime ago. Lots of “water under the bridge” since then, as they say. That’s probably more than 500 million heartbeats ago!

 

When I was a boy, time seemed to pass at the pace of a slug. Days leading up to Christmas seemed interminable. Even the night of Christmas Eve seemed to be at least 36 hours long. Try as I might, I couldn’t fall to sleep, my mind racing with anticipation. It seemed as if daylight would never arrive. Now it feels as if fall lasts only about two days before sliding into winter; the Christmas holidays come and go in the blink of an eye.

 

Many Americans tend to be governed by the clock. We set alarms to wake up, have reminders to keep us on schedule each day, even pass on lunch breaks because, “I don’t have time.” In our latter years, however, we look wistfully back at our lives, wishing we had made time for important things in our lives rather than subjecting ourselves to “the tyranny of the urgent.”

 

The Scriptures tell us a lot about time, but not in the way we generally approach it. The book of Ecclesiastes, for example, offers a refreshing perspective:

“There is a time for everything, 

and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

a time to kill and a time to heal, 

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

 

For those of us convinced that we don’t have the time to do necessary things – because more urgent things are beckoning – this passage is convicting.

 

This is especially significant during a season such as this. Even with COVID restrictions, most of us to one extent or another want to continue with holiday traditions; we’re not about to let a little virus tell us what we can and can’t do. 

 

But it’s really not about squeezing the last second into our planning and errand-running. Rich or poor, executive or hourly wage worker, we all have something in common: 24 hours in a single day, 60 minutes in every hour, 60 seconds in every minute. The question is how we steward those seconds, minutes and hours. We’ll invest the time in some way – what will be the return on our investment?

 

Ephesians 5:16 offers these sobering words: “Redeeming the time, for the days are evil.” Other translations phrase it, “making the most of your time” or “making the most of every opportunity.” Time isn’t inherently evil, of course, but as the adage reminds us, “Time waits for no one.”

 

So how are we going to use it? Will our minutes, hours and days be spent on frivolous pursuits, matters we won’t even remember weeks or months from now? Or will we strive to keep alert, poised to recognize and act upon special, even once-in-a-lifetime opportunities when they present themselves?

 

Just a handful of days from now, Christmas will be upon us. Will we succeed in making memories, or will we spoil them because we’ve been too busy with trivial concerns? After that, we’ll barely have time to catch our breath before a new year emerges and, hopefully, doesn’t become a repeat of the year just past. How will we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead?

 

I like the advice of Galatians 6:10, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” We can’t go wrong if we do that.

What If ‘Tomorrow’ Never Comes?

Most of us are amateurs at the majority of things we do. We try our best, but we’re not experts. But if there’s one thing many of us are pros at, it’s pro-crastinating. (Have you ever met an amateur-crastinator?)

Tasks we dislike quite easily are delayed for another time. “Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow,” Aaron Burr is reputed to have said. Even though the one-time Vice President to President Thomas Jefferson apparently wasn’t thinking that when he chose to engage Alexander Hamilton in a duel, which resulted in the latter’s demise. 

We might not have his dueling spirit, but can relate to his sentiments. Sometimes even things we enjoy are postponed for another day. Practically all writers have perfected the art of procrastination. Writing is such a personal act, putting intimate thoughts into words and sentences and then onto a page – paper or online – and then submitting them for readers’ consideration. So, there’s a temptation to delay until “the right moment.” But I’ve learned that as with any worthwhile challenge, ultimately you must just suck it up and get to work.

Where procrastination can be most damaging is in relationships. Harry Chapin sang about this in his classic tune, “Cat’s in the Cradle.” If you don’t remember, it’s about a father who promised to spend time with his young son, but always found more pressing things to do. When he finally reached the point in life when he had the time, the now-grown son had his own slew of commitments. The best he could do was echo his father’s words, “But we’ll get together then, Dad, we’re gonna have a good time then.”

Recently I heard someone recite a poem called “Tomorrow,” by American poet Edgar Guest, that captures the perils of procrastination perfectly:

He was going to be all that a mortal could be. . . Tomorrow
None should be kinder or braver than he. . . Tomorrow
A friend who was troubled and weary he knew,
Who’d be glad of a lift and who needed it, too,
On him he would call to see what he could do. . . Tomorrow
Each morning he’d stack up the letters he’d write. . . Tomorrow
And he thought of the friends he would fill with delight. . . Tomorrow
It was too bad indeed; he was busy each day,
And hadn’t a minute to stop on his way;
“More time I’ll give to others,” he’d say. . . Tomorrow
The greatest of workers this man would have been. . . Tomorrow
The world would have known him, had he ever seen. . . Tomorrow
But the fact is he died, and faded from view,
And all that he left here when living was through – 

Was a mountain of things he intended to do. . . Tomorrow.

Lord knows I’ve done my share of putting off until tomorrow, perhaps more than my share. In recent years I’ve been trying to overcome that, especially with loved ones and old friends. When someone comes to mind that I haven’t talked with lately – or at least texted – I try to give them a call. When I think, “We really should get together for lunch (or coffee),” I try to make it happen.

We’re discovering how quickly our grandkids grow up – even faster than we realize. So I’m aiming to not be consumed by the urgent and instead focus on the important, such as spending time with one of our “grands” whenever we get the chance. Recently we went to church and enjoyed brunch with our oldest granddaughter here in town, and it was a special time. A rare opportunity.

Ephesians 5:16 talks about, “making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” Some translations use the phrase, “redeeming the time,” which I prefer because it presents the image of making a one-time redemption for a day or an opportunity. What’s “evil” about the days is that once they’re gone, you can’t get them back. They’re beyond redemption.

Another verse, Galatians 6:10, offers a similar idea as it applies to relationships: "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers." Tomorrow, or as they say it in Spanish – “mañana” – may never come.

As Jesus said, "as long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work" (John 9:4). Let's not be like the fellow described in Guest's poem, who figured there would always be time enough for doing whatever it was – tomorrow.

Don’t Be Afraid to Say It!

A basic principle of advertising in any form – whether in print, on TV, radio, billboards, in movie theaters, or online – is the value of repetition. The more times people read or hear something, the more likely the message is to make an impression; hopefully one that prompts them to purchase the product or service.

During my time in the newspaper business, I served as a publisher for about a year. I’d occasionally talk with advertisers who complained because they’d received little response from the ad that had appeared just one time. “You have to run your ad more than once,” I’d explain. “It might take several exposures before people will notice it and decide to be your customers.”

This principle also seems applicable to spirituality, whether for people being drawn to Jesus Christ or believers growing in their faith. Usually it requires hearing something more than once before it sinks in and we start to act on it.

Writing to Christ followers in the city of Philippi, the apostle Paul wrote, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put into practice” (Philippians 4:9). Apparently, these people had numerous opportunities to hear from Paul and observe how his life aligned with what he preached. They were learning via the power of repetition.

This should serve as motivation for us to eagerly share with others what God has taught us over time, whether we’re speaking to believers, seekers, or even apparently ardent non-believers.

Reflecting over my own spiritual journey, I realize it was a long, cumulative process of being presented with biblical truth, meditating over it, and eventually resolving to implement it into my life. I can remember hearing many stories about Jesus as a boy, and reading the Bible as a young adult, but not until my early 30’s did I start understanding how to relate this to my life.

Recently I had an opportunity to converse with a young man about his education and career plans. His chosen field of endeavor is known for its antagonism toward Christian beliefs, but I commended him for his desire to serve as salt and light in such a challenging environment.

As we talked, I offered some insights I had gained over the years, offering words of caution and a reminder of the importance to commit to God whatever we intend to do. For instance, I cited my life verses, Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight,” giving examples of how this passage has proved meaningful for my own life.

My goal wasn’t to persuade him to do exactly what I said, but to plant some seeds of biblical truth. This might have been the only time I’ll see this young man face to face, and  was hoping to impart some wisdom I’ve acquired that might be useful for him in the future.

I have a friend who drives for a ride-sharing service and prays every day for opportunities to talk with his passengers about the Lord. In his affable, non-intrusive manner, he’s started numerous conversations by talking briefly about how God has worked in his life. His goal isn’t to “close the deal” evangelistically, but to demonstrate the love of Christ to people whoever they are and wherever they happen to be spiritually.

His hope is that God will use what he says either to move them closer to a life-changing relationship with Jesus, or to help them deepen in their day-to-day walk with Him. My friend realizes he might never cross paths with many of these people again, so he’s intent on “making the most of the opportunity” (Colossians 4:5).

Without question, we need to use wisdom whenever we speak with others about Jesus Christ. Especially strangers. Ephesians 4:15 says we’re to be “speaking the truth in love,” engaging with others out of genuine interest and concern, wanting to share with them the best news we could ever hear.

At the same time, we shouldn’t be timid when God swings open doors of opportunity. To borrow a phrase from the Seals and Crofts tune of the early 1970’s, “we may never pass this way again.” We might never know how the Lord will use the words we share, but if done in the power of His Spirit, we can be assured He will use them!