I’ve been meditating on some passages in Hebrews 12 and 13 that have something to say to us about how we should approach thoughts about our future:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with
perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart...because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can [any earthly enemy] do to me?”
This says to me that all of us, even the Hall of Faith members who endured far more severe trials than we will ever experience, have gone through nothing like what Christ went through for us. Because of what Jesus did, we can persevere in our faith knowing that God is with us the whole way, and our reward is sure. Nothing on this earth can take it away. So, don’t be afraid of bad news or when or how your life on this earth might end since heaven awaits. Keep your eyes on Jesus, from whose love you can never be separated.
These thoughts came to my mind when I learned from my oncologist that my sarcoma has metastasized and is now in my lungs. This is not unexpected news, since I have known from 2011 that I had a disease that would someday take my life.
Permit me to share a perspective that has prepared me over recent years for this inevitable bad news. My hope in doing this is that it might be beneficial to anyone else who might receive bad news at some point in the future.
I am a slow learner, no question, but I can still learn important lessons, thank God. The chief lesson I have learned in the past 7 years since my initial diagnosis is this: live one day at a time, and pray to be filled by the Holy Spirit for each of those days. The importance of living one day at a time was stressed by Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34, and Paul, in one of his letters to the Corinthians, talks about the importance of having a day-by-day perspective when facing severe trials:
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day [other versions say “day by day”]. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT
Jerimiah also stresses how we are to think of how God’s providence is apportioned to us daily:
22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT
Jeremiah might have been thinking about God’s provision of the manna each morning in the wilderness when he wrote verse 23 as a reminder of how God’s mercies come to us one day at a time. The manna would be eatable only on the day it was provided. God wanted his children to be fully engaged with Him each day, trusting that He would provide for the next day when it arrived.
We live much of our life either counting up or counting down the days. We count up days to when we’ll be a teenager, get our driver’s license, graduate, get married, have children, retire, etc., and if we get a diagnosis like mine we have the temptation to start counting down our remaining days and think in terms of bucket lists and experiences and places we want to know or go before those days run out. These temptations serve only to distract us from living meaningful, fulfilled lives dedicated to glorifying God. If we are living one day at a time, it will not matter how many of those days we count.
We’ve lost some friends who died suddenly and unexpectedly who had no idea that their days were numbered, that they had far fewer days than they or their families ever thought would occur. But if they, and all the rest of us, live one day at a time, filled with His Spirit, then every day is meaningful, fulfilled according to God’s will and to His glory. That will be a successful day whether it is followed by thousands more days or zero more days. And when that last day comes, those who we leave behind will take comfort that we lived every day filled with the Holy Spirit and in accordance with God’s will for us. How could a day be more successful than that?
Now this is not to say that we shouldn’t plan. Proverbs 16:9 says: “We should make our plans— counting on God to direct us” Living Bible. Spending each day “in the Spirit” is exactly how we can count on God to direct us in making those plans. Paul writes in several of his letters that he is planning trips to come to their churches in the days ahead. But Christ tells us that God wants us to be fully engaged with Him each day, and we can’t do that if we are rehearsing injuries or injustices of the past or having anxiety about the future. Paul tells us to forget about the past and Jesus tells us to not be anxious about our future. If we worry about whether there will be a tomorrow or have fears about what it might bring, we are worried about a future without God in it. That is not rational, since when tomorrow becomes today He is right here:
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can [any earthly enemy] do to me?”
By being filled with His Spirit we can be open to the guidance, comfort and counsel of the Spirit and not miss those opportunities to be an effective witness to others about God’s presence in our life. If we are distracted by thoughts of the past or fears for the future, we will not recognize those opportunities when our path intersects with others in need. I believe that it is these intersections that represent the very marrow of the One-day-at-a-time Spirit guided Christian experience.
My concern in sharing all this with you is to give you comfort that I am, like you, held in the palm of God’s hand, and am prepared to go from there to being asleep in His arms when that day comes. Until then I ask for your prayers for both of us that our faith will remain strong, that we’ll be of good courage, and that we will love and be loved by faithful friends like you that make each day blessed.
