Tag Archives: one day at a time

One day at a time

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Have you ever tried to live two days at a time? To carry out the tasks of today while trying to anticipate and respond to the problems that tomorrow may bring? We can of course make some preparations for tomorrow but to live in the future as if we could control its outcomes is precisely to be a thief of today’s experience. And whom will you pay to regain what is lost?

What I am learning (and relearning) thus far in this leukemia journey, now 13 months along, is that not I nor the doctors control anything. It is indeed one day at a time. This month-long cold is a good test of my immature immune system’s ability to fight. That and the ongoing GVHD fight continues one day at a time, over what seems like a long period of time.

But what else occurs one day at a time as you and I each fight our own battles? Grace and strength. In his immense suffering, Paul wrote:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) We receive these gifts if we ask and maintain faith and hope to receive them… One day at a time.

One day at a time sweet Jesus
That’s all I’m asking from you.
Just give me the strength
To do everyday what I have to do.
Yesterday’s gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine.
Lord help me today, show me the way
One day at a time.

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

Every Day Faith

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I remember flying back to our former home of Australia a few years back. It was 14 hours nonstop from LA to Sydney. Isn’t that crazy that you can fly 500 miles per hour anywhere without stopping?! The in-flight movie screens would flash a map on the screen every 2-3 hours showing where the plane was with respect to the whole journey. I remember waking up in my cramped coach seat thinking, “This is about all I can take of this. I hope we’re getting close.” Then the map appeared showing we were almost HALF way there! Of course, we passengers had no clue where we really were. There was no reference point visible from the windows, just clouds and ocean. And there was no way to change the situation. But the captain knew precisely where we were; using the instrument panel s/he skillfully kept us on course and brought us safely to our destination. That’s how faith works. You put your trust in the one who has power to keep you on course.

Have you ever been tempted by a desire to see the future? Especially in a troubling and uncertain position, have you ever asked, “How is this going to work out?” When is this going to resolve? But in the end, no one has figured out how to live two days at once, so we resolve to live one day at a time…by faith.

We all live by faith everyday. We live by faith that it won’t be the bridge WE drive across that fails, that our health will not falter, that our children will be well. Even the nonbeliever lives in tremendous faith that their beliefs will somehow reward them in the end. One of my favorite lines from the Facing the Giants movie is when the disappointed coach’s wife learns she still is NOT pregnant. Standing in the clinic parking lot, she lifts her eyes to heaven and says, “Even now I put my trust in you!”

How does your trust meter read these days? Especially in those areas of your life where you are not the captain of your fate, when you are powerless to change your course? Kirk Cameron is coming out with a movie late September called “Unstoppable” to examine how faith leads us through unthinkable situations. I hope you take opportunity to view it with a friend.

2 Corinthians 5:7 we walk by faith, not by sight.