Lately, I have been thinking about living the day to day and doing it well. I am good at allowing the day to be dictated by the last or neglected for the next. I am the master of turning a day, a week, or even a year into a means to something else. I think I have been somewhat conditioned this way. We go to elementary school so that we can get to middle school. We go to middle school so that we can get to high school. We go to high school so that we can go to college. We go to college so that we can get a good job. We work a job so that we can get promoted or get another job. We work so that we can retire.
The dinner table at my house may provide the best example. My boys often eat dinner (quickly) so that they can get to the dessert. The main course often becomes a hurdle that must be leaped to get to the brownies. It is amazing how quickly they can devour stuff when a good dessert awaits . Certainly there is nothing wrong with these things per say. I love dessert as much as my boys.
There is nothing wrong with setting goals and working toward them. There are necessary stepping stones along the way in our lives. My point is that we are conditioned to see things as valuable because they move us to the next thing. When this happens we are apt to neglect the present. This perspective limits the value of the moment. It is utilitarian in its approach to life. Something is only valuable to us if it is useful to us (and we are using our definition of useful here).
I have noticed a lot of texts in Scripture that touch on the dailiness of our lives. Since the Bible is about teaching and training us to live godly lives we won’t be surprised to find it equipping us to rightly engage the moment. The next few posts will focus on the dailiness of the life of faith. I want to meditate on how Scripture gives us thoughts, promises, commands, and tools for seizing the day. This is an exercise for me that I hope you will benefit from.