“ENTICED BY TOMORROW” – Nov 4

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2

Tomorrow plays an enticing melody.  It is a melody that every person cannot help but hum during the day.  We plan in a chant of tomorrow.  We daydream in the croon of the future.  We fix goals in a serenade to what might become.  The necessity of tomorrow brings us all into the choir.  However, the allure of what is just around the corner can grasp our attention like acrophobia can steal a view.  Tomorrow has a perpetual rhythm whose powerful grasp is difficult to escape.

mendhak / Foter.com / CC BY-SA

My plans, goals, hopes and dreams, all inhabit tomorrow.  A goal intersects with the presence for a preciously short instant where it is either accomplished or not.  A plan evaporates upon implementation.  Hopes and dreams are recast once they are realized.  Tomorrow provides an escape from the physical bounds of the presence to the ethereal possibility of what may come.

It is easy for the promise of tomorrow to eclipse the duty of today.

Waiting for tomorrow is how I have spent the majority of my life.  I have lived preoccupied by planning to make tomorrow better.  I daily make investments of time, money, and energy into tomorrow.  The majority of our lives are spent striving for tomorrow:

Secondary education were years spent in preparing for college or work.
College was spent in preparation for graduate school or a career.
A career was spent in preparation for advancement.
Advancement was spent in preparation of retirement.

Tomorrow provides a consistent rhythm for most of our lives.  We live for the weekend.  We live for the next holiday.  We live for the next vacation.  If we are not careful, we can end up living for tomorrow and miss duties of today.

Garry – www.visionandimagination.com / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

An unhealthy focus on tomorrow can steal our confidence and contentment in the presence.  As we study and learn all that we don’t know, our lack of qualifications can keep us sidelined.  Past failures can cause us to doubt our capabilities in the present.  Our esteem for the mature can lend to prolonged deferment.  Our investments in tomorrow can deprive the profits of today.

Thomas Hawk / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

For a follower of Christ, there is an aspect of tomorrow that will never be improved from today’s reality.  For all who are in Christ, we are children of God, today.  A decade, century, millennium will not improve upon the title that we have, today.  We are children of the most High God.  We are fellow heirs with Christ, today.  The reality that we experience today allows us to cry, “ABBA! FATHER!”, through the Spirit of adoption that we have received.

Beloved, we are God’s children, now. 

The reality of who we are today should change how we view the present.  Who we are today, frees us from the enticing song of tomorrow with all of its promises for a better future that keeps us from being active in the present.

Beloved, we are God’s children.

What we will be tomorrow has not yet appeared but we know that someday we will be like Christ and we shall see Him as He is.  That will be an incredible tomorrow.  The reality of this incredible tomorrow should provide perspective to all of our planning, goals, hopes and dreams for our personal tomorrows.

Beloved, we are going to be like Christ and we shall see Him as He is.

We all have a duty to plan for tomorrow. We all are filled with hopes and dreams for the future.  Who we are should inform all of those plans.  It should shape every hope and dream.

Beloved, we are God’s children.

We are free to accomplish our Father’s business in all its varied forms, today.  No child of God has to wait for tomorrow to do our Father’s will today.

We don’t need a position or permission, degrees or pedigrees, time or dimes, acceptability or civility to:

…love the Lord your God with all of your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.

We do not need to wait for tomorrow to love the Lord today.  We can love God regardless of the condition of our today.

…love your neighbor as yourself.

Our neighbor’s heart can be encased with our love today.  Love does not need to wait until tomorrow.

Beloved, love does not need to wait for tomorrow
because we are God’s children today.

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for allowing me to be your child now.  Thank you for allowing me into your family today.  Father, I look forward to the day when I will be like Christ.  I look forward to the day when I will see Christ as He is.  I long for that day.  Lord, you know that I get distracted by all the cares of this word.  You know that I can make an excuse not to be loving out of my addiction to my dreams of tomorrow.  Change my mind to the reality that I do not need anything from tomorrow to do your will today.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son,  Jesus Christ.   Amen.

MOTIVATED FOR WHAT? – Dec. 11th

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” Mark 8:36

I read this quote, ascribed to Dr. Robert H. Schuller:

“The only place where a dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.”

I about gagged on this giant lard of wishful thinking nonsense.  It is just not true.

I sing horribly flat.  It is an impossible dream for me to be the next American Idol.  My thinking is not what is limiting my vocal career.

However, there is a deeper attitude in this type of positive-thinking plea that troubles me.

Just think about what the motivational speaker is selling.

If you just achieve your goal then you will be fulfilled and happy.

There is a premise built into messages that our happiness is limited by unfulfilled dreams. The gospel preached by motivational speakers is that the highest aspiration to achieve is the attainment of your dreams – being all that you can be.

That is a horrible thing to encourage.   It is not true.  My happiness is not limited by the fact that I have not achieved all my dreams – that I have not lived up to my potential. In Christ, I can be joyful in all circumstances.  That truth makes “being the best me” as the fountain of happiness an unworthy dream.

It is a false gospel.

 Motivation is a tool; not a destination. The most important aspect of motivation is that it propels us in a direction. Being very motivated to pursue a dream straight to hell is a horrible thing. The destination is what matters.  What your dreams are is what matters; not how you obtain them.

What if you obtain all of your dreams but you forfeit your life?

Motivational speakers should encourage us toward the right dreams.  We should be more concerned with what our dreams are then on how to obtain them.  All dreams are not created equally. We can waste our lives chasing the chaff of worthless dreams.

This is what our dreams should include:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34

If your dreams do not include being a worthy and faithful servant then beware of what you are motivated to gain.

PRAYER: Lord, You are the only one that I should be motivated to pursue. Forgive me for chasing unworthy dreams. Forgive me for over-valuing myself and my dreams in comparison to your surpassing worth. Father, change my heart so that my dreams are worthy of the calling that you have given me. Create in me a pure heart that can see this world for what it is and desire you more than anything else.    Amen