Posts Tagged: one day at a time
“ONE DAY AT A TIME: DANCING IN THE RAIN”
“Anyone can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burden of those two awful eternities, yesterday and tomorrow that we break down. It is not the experience of today that drives us mad. It is the remorse or bitterness for something, which happened yesterday, or the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Let us therefore do our best to live but one day at a time. Am I living one day at a time?” (Twenty-Four Hours a Day.)
“Dust of Snow”
BY ROBERT FROST
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
One day is at a time is more than a slogan. It is also more than a sitcom from the 1970’s and 1980’s. One day at a time is all any of its gets to live or has to live. The richest person in the world and the poorest person in the world each gets only one day at a time. Time is one of the most egalitarian aspects of human existence.
Of course, not everyone gets the same circumstances or relationships to live his or her day. So, perhaps the days are not so egalitarian after all.
On the other hand, I’ve noticed that people who have money, power, influence, pleasure, apparently good relationships, and good health aren’t always so happy in their days. Some are plumb miserable. And I knew a lady who sang hymns of praise to God the day she died at the end of her third round with ovarian cancer. It would appear that we are back to time being about as good as we perceive it to be (or, perhaps, make it to be).
But, whether time makes us miserable or happy . . . No! That’s not the most helpful way of looking at the matter. Time can’t make us either happy or miserable. We are the ones in charge of whether time makes us happy or miserable. We can’t create time itself, but we can often color it with either joy or sadness.
Not always. Sometimes terrible things happen, and we simply cannot be joyful. Sometimes we have to just stand there, like a cow in a cold rain.
But often, we can use our days to be happy, and to make others happy.
When the kids were little, we were about to go to the local outdoor swimming pool. However, it began to rain. There was distant thunder, and the pool was wisely shut down when there was lightning.
The kids—my youngest daughter in particular—were very disappointed. However, I did a very wise thing: I said, “Look, you’ve got your swim things on. Why not go out and dance around in the rain?”
And they did! I don’t remember if I myself went out and danced in the rain. Probably not. But I should have.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- “Even a Sliver of Light” April 9, 2024“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:6, English Standard Version) I missed the total eclipse yesterday. There were a number of good reasons for this, but […]
- “The Process in Miracles and the Miracle of Process” March 11, 2024“2 Kings 5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids […]
- “The Power of Encouragement—Even for Old People” March 10, 2024“But encourage each other every day while it is ‘today.’ Help each other so none of you will become hardened because sin has tricked you.” (Hebrews 3:13, New Century Version) Yesterday, I was walking at a nearby park. There was a large group of young people some of whom were running while other young people […]
- “Endurance” March 10, 2024“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:36, English Standard Version) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us […]
- “The Limits of Non-Judgmentalism” February 24, 2024“Matt. 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. Matt. 7:2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2, English Standard Version) This morning, in my virtual 12-step meeting, we discussed the topic of judgmentalism. There were many wise […]
- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
- “Character is the Real Lesson” January 19, 2024I am often confused about what lesson I’m really supposed to be learning. For example, this morning I was trying to knock out several Spanish lessons. My intentions were a lot better than my internet connection. I’ve done three lessons. Or rather, I’ve done two lessons. One of them I did twice because the internet […]
- “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked” January 1, 2024Each year, I try to come up with one word or a short phrase for what I intend to work on in the upcoming year. 2024 is “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked”. What?!! What does that even mean? So glad that you asked! Jesus said to his disciples, “Why do you look at the speck […]
- “Searching for the Noble One” December 26, 2023My wife and I were reading Luke, chapter 2 on Christmas Day. Luke 2 talks about the shepherds being told to look for this very special child—in fact, this King—in a stable. I prefer the word “barn”. I grew up on a farm. I know what a barn is. A stable is entirely too biblical […]
- “That Don’t Impress God Much” December 14, 2023DTEB, “That Don’t Impress God Much” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (Song by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain) Micah 6:8 (MSG) “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be […]
“A HAPPY NEW DAY!”
DTEB, “A HAPPY NEW DAY!”
Have you ever thought about how arbitrary some of our transitional times are? And perhaps we are biting off more than anyone can chew when we start thinking and talking about a year.
Here is my journal entry for today.
Monday, December 31, 2018
“Finish each day and be done with it. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well.”
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)
The last day of the year. I wonder if we don’t make too much of these transitions. They are artificial, and perhaps not all that helpful or important.
“This is the day that the LORD has made” (Psalm 118:24) may be said of any day. Perhaps the morning and night are the real transitions.
Paul speaks of daily transformation in 2 Corinthians 4:16: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
In 3:18—just a few verses before the “day by day” of 4:16—Paul notes that “. . . we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
I found the comments of Colin G. Kruse so helpful that I copied and pasted them below, even though I generally hate long quotes.
“And we all … are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. It is important to note that the changing into his likeness takes place not at one point of time, but as an extended process. The verb metamorphoumetha (‘we are being changed’) is in the present tense, indicating the continuous nature of the change, while the words from one degree of glory to another stress its progressive nature. The verb metamorphoō is found in three other places only in the New Testament. It is used to describe Jesus’ transfiguration in Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2, and Paul uses it in Romans 12:2 to denote moral transformation (‘Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind’).
Paul speaks often of the transformation of believers in other passages, though words other than metamorphoō are employed. In some cases he has in mind the future transformation of believers’ bodies to be like Christ’s glorious body (1 Cor. 15:51–52; Phil. 3:21). In other cases it is clearly a present moral transformation that is in view (Rom. 6:1–4; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). The Old Testament prophets who spoke beforehand of the new covenant certainly anticipated a moral transformation of those who were to experience its blessings (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:25–27), and Paul saw this expectation fulfilled in the lives of his converts (1 Cor. 6:9–11; 2 Cor. 3:3). These last references, together with Romans 12:2 cited above, provide the clue to Paul’s meaning in the present context. The continuous and progressive transformation by which believers are changed from one degree of glory to another is the moral transformation which is taking place in their lives so that they approximate more and more to the likeness of God expressed so perfectly in the life of Jesus Christ.”[1]
So, rather than simply wishing you a happy New Year (which I do!), let me give you an even deeper wish: May you have a happy new day!
[1] Colin G. Kruse, 2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, TNTC 8; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 101-102.