One Day At A Time

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Matthew 6:34

“One day at a time.”

I am certain that all of us have heard this credo multiple times. A mainstay of addiction recovery programs, this simple sentence has been celebrated seemingly forever as both a coping strategy for dealing with all that life can throw at us and a broad approach for emotionally healthy living.

How often do we remember that it is also what Jesus explicitly teaches us?

Yet Jesus also teaches in Luke 14 that we should plan ahead, to make sure we have what we need to complete a task before undertaking that task. How are we to do that if we are not thinking about anything past today?

A part of the answer surely lies in the reality that if we are seeking forgiveness, and striving to be reconciled back to God, we are by definition thinking about a good deal more than just today.

If we are weighing cost and consequence, that we might make good choices, we are thinking about a good deal more than just today.

If we are truly born again, born into a new life of continual transformation, we are absolutely thinking about a good deal more than just today. We are thinking about eternity. We are thinking about whether we will spend it in Heaven or in Hell.

If we are not thinking about such things, if we are not concerned with such things, how can we possibly claim to have been born again?

How can it be that Jesus would also teach us to live one day at a time?

The easy answer is to simply dismiss the seeming contradiction as just that, a contradiction, an example of supposed Biblical inconsistency.

The easy answer is a lazy answer. The easy answer is also a wrong answer.

To get a right answer we must understand an important precept of how to read and apprehend Scripture. Scripture must be read and understood holistically. Everything within Scripture must reconcile to everything within Scripture, without exception.

Contradictions are simply not possible within Scripture; God does not argue with Himself. If we are faced with a seeming contradiction then we are faced with a flaw in our own understanding. We are faced with our own lack of wisdom.

Thus we must reconcile the teaching to take the world one day at a time to the teaching to plan ahead and be mindful of spiritual and eternal things. We must begin with the predicate that these are not contradictory but complementary teachings, with the one feeding into and supporting the other.

How does one reconcile thinking about the future, about planning for the future, with living one day at a time, worrying only about today?

One thought comes to us from medieval theologian and Augustinian monk Thomas à Kempis, who observed in his classic “The Imitation of Christ” that “…wherever you go, you take yourself with you, and you will always find yourself.”

The more modern version: wherever you go, there you are.

We may think about the future. We probably should think about the future. We certainly are known to dwell on the past! Yet we always exist only in the present moment.

I am here, and now. There is no other place, no other time, where I can exist.

As I can only exist in this present moment, I can only act in this present moment. I cannot act some place else, because I am only here. I cannot act some “when” else, because again I am only now.

As I exist, and as I act, so must I necessarily choose. Whatever I choose to do, I choose it here, I choose it now.

I cannot possibly choose tomorrow, or the next day. I cannot choose again for any of my yesterdays.

It is not that the only choices I must make are the ones I make right now. It is that the only choices I can make are the ones I make right now.

Decisions I will be called to make tomorrow I can do nothing about until tomorrow. Decisions I was called to make yesterday have already been made, and I can do nothing to alter them.

Worrying about decisions I will be called to make tomorrow, or fretting over decisions I made either wisely or unwisely yesterday, is simply to worry about things which are beyond my power to change.

Yet as I make my choices today, as I make my decisions now, if I am to make the right choices, and the good decisions, I must be mindful about the direction in which my choices will take me.

Am I choosing to walk with God, or walk away from God? Am I choosing to obey His Law or defy His Law? Am I choosing to move along the right path or the wrong path?

In making each choice today, I am by definition choosing where I want to be tomorrow. I am choosing the path I will take from today forward. I am choosing the future I desire for myself.

Does it not make sense that I should focus on the choices I am called to make today?

Does it not make sense that I should put my energies into making good choices today rather than wasting them worrying about choices I cannot make until tomorrow, or fretting over choices I made yesterday?

Does it not make sense that we should deal with whatever is in front of us right now, and not be distracted with thoughts of what might come before us later?

We can easily see that, in order to make good choices today, we must calculate cost and consequence. We must look ahead that we might be sure we are choosing the right path. We must be mindful of where we want to go, at what destination we want to arrive.

The first best choice on every day must therefore be to focus on this day. The teaching Jesus gives us in Matthew 6 is the foundation of which Jesus speaks in Luke 14.

Choose for the future you want, but make your choice in the present, with your focus on the present.

My prayer this day is that I will always be mindful of what is before me today. My prayer this day is that I will always focus on living this day well. My prayer this day is that I will not be distracted by what may come before me tomorrow.

My prayer for you this day is that you also will always be mindful of what is before you today. My prayer for you this day is that you also will always focus on living this day well. My prayer for you this day is that you also will not be distracted by what may come before you tomorrow.

In order to make good choices today, we must calculate cost and consequence. We must look ahead that we might be sure we are choosing the right path. We must be mindful of where we want to go, at what destination we want to arrive.

The first best choice on every day must therefore be to focus on this day.

Choose for the future you want, but make your choice in the present, with your focus on the present. Choose today for today. Wait for tomorrow to choose tomorrow.

Take each day as it comes, one day at a time.