When we moved to La Grange, I did run across a slight problem: Jackson's new room had two windows, not just one. So I devised a plan, but never put it into action. Five months quickly passed and then my Mother In Law came for a visit. My MIL decided to motivate me. We went to the store, purchased the additional items, cut everything out, and pinned it all together. When she returned to Oklahoma, I was motivated to finish the curtains the next day. The next day turned into the day after, then the day after turned into next week. This kept happening, and a month and a half later, I still have not completed the curtains.
This honestly sounds incredibly lazy of me, but I promise I really haven't been sitting around doing nothing the entire time. I've done some deep cleaning around the house more than once, ran errands, visited some people, and have done all kinds of other things. However, I seem to always forget to sew the curtains together. I have moved then from one place to the next to get them out of my way, but I haven't taken the couple of hours to sew them so I can hang them in the windows.
The more I think about the curtains, the more it irritates me that they are not finished. One day I'll say, "I need to finish these curtains, tomorrow should be good." When the next day comes along, I just say the same thing. I lack the motivation to finish.
My High School Bible class teacher taught my class over and over not to say, "I'll do something tomorrow" for a couple of reasons. The thing that has stuck with me the most is the first reason he gave. He said repeatedly, "Tomorrow never comes." He explained how we never make it to tomorrow. We're always looking toward tomorrow, because it's always in the future. We're just chasing after tomorrow. The other reason is we're not guaranteed another day so we need to take care of things today. I thank you for teaching that to me Bill, but I haven't always put it into action. I'm real good at letting others know "tomorrow never comes" and if they want to see something done, then to do it themselves, but rarely do I take action myself. I guess I'm just caught up in chasing after tomorrow.
Thinking on this makes me wonder if I'm chasing tomorrow on my walk with God. I wonder about the cards I'm going to mail tomorrow, or the Bible study I'm going to start tomorrow. Am I going to say that encouraging word tomorrow, or am I just going to keep putting God off until tomorrow? Sure, I may be busy going to class, worship, and all the youth activities, but am I putting God on the back burner when it comes to my personal relationship with Him? After all, I'm not guaranteed tomorrow, even if I could catch it.
"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
James 4:13-14 (NIV)
