I originally posted this back in early 2015, and have recently been reminded that I never got back to this, so since it has been quite a while since I first posted it, here it is again, and I’ll add some more tomorrow…
I had a thought…
…and if you are anything like me, you know that when a thought actually comes along, it can be disturbing. There I was last night, minding my own business and watching “George Gently” on TV. I don’t know, maybe the plot was dragging a little bit, but my mind began to wander; then it happened. A thought.
It just hit me like a ton of bricks: Tomorrow will never come.
I didn’t like this thought very much; don’t they say “the sun will come up tomorrow”?
The problem is that every time the sun has come up, it wasn’t tomorrow; it was “today.” I thought some more…
Last Sunday, I thought that “tomorrow” would be on Monday, but when I woke up on Monday morning, it was still “today.” Yesterday was Tuesday, and I thought that today would be tomorrow, but as you know, today is actually “today” and “tomorrow” is still tomorrow; Thursday. I thought some more… again.
“Yesterday” comes all the time, but we can’t ever be there. “Tomorrow” is always supposed to be coming, but it never arrives for what we think is going to be “tomorrow” always turns out to be “today” so that “today” never seems to end… but that makes no sense!
That’s when I hit the pause button on my show; I was missing too much of the mystery, I’ll never guess who did it if I miss too much of the plot. And then I thought some more… yet again.
“The future” might be a lot like “tomorrow.”
If you would have asked me in 1980 if 2015 was “the future” I would have said that 2015 was definitely the future; the far off distant future. I would have wondered if I would actually live long enough to see it. Now, 35 years later, here we are: I made it, if barely. Now we know that 2015 is not the “future” because just look around you, it’s still the present, just like it’s always been, and every day of the 35 years in between 1980 and 2015 has been “today”.
There’s something fishy going on here!
Well, right about then, Mrs. Don asked how long I was going to leave the show on pause, and I recognized the voice of She Who Must Be Obeyed, so I set these thoughts aside and resumed “George Gently”.
This morning when I got up, I did some checking, and do you know what I discovered?
It’s still “today” and “tomorrow” hasn’t come yet. It’s also still the “present” and the “future” still hasn’t come. OK, now I’m starting to get irritated…
This morning I had another thought, Heaven help me!
You know “some day” and “one of these days”? They haven’t come around yet either, because we seem to be stuck in “today.” Kind of like that movie “Groundhog Day” (only way different) I have quite a few things I’m going to do “some day” and even more that I plan on doing “one of these days” and as soon as these days come, I’m going to get onto those things; maybe that will be tomorrow, if “tomorrow” ever gets here…
Make no mistake, dear reader, I have a lot more to say about this, but I’m going to take a little break right now, because I think I’m getting a nasty headache. I’m not waiting until tomorrow to get back to this, at least not until I get a better handle on what’s going on here; I’ll be writing more on this TODAY!
Life Project Blog 
Hmmm. Maybe that’s why Today is the Day of Salvation… Thanks for your “thought-provoking” thoughts, Don!
Hmmm… yes, maybe I should write a little more sometime. 🙂
Very good! I think you are on to something.
Blessings.
Reminded me of a song by Elvis, while it is about two lovers and marriage it always made me think about the 2nd coming, and how it will always be coming, but will never be here.
https://www.last.fm/music/Elvis+Presley/_/Tomorrow+Never+Comes/+lyrics
Not to worry, it’ll get here, probably on a day called “Today”
Saw a show episode (back in the early 60’s) where Jesus returned, but everyone was too busy to notice.
“Tomorrow” has real significance because it signifies the next calendar day, which will come (Lord willing). Hence, if I tell me pastor that I will see him “tomorrow”, Tuesday evening, he knows that I intend to keep our regular Wednesday fellowship time together, and he can either acknowledge or scrub our appointment. I also intend to go to church “tomorrow”, Sunday, which, Lord willing, I will do.
“one of these days” I will have much to say about this.
“I have a lot more to say about this, but I’m going to take a little break right now, …” Wow! That little break turned out to be 6 years! Once you get that “today” and “tomorrow” thing settled, perhaps you could work on the “little break” thing. 🙂
Also, as you said in the introductory paragraph, “I’ll add some more tomorrow…”, but then it will be “today”? But “then” implies the future, so I guess you mean … — hhmmm!
Finally, this post brings to mind your post on Hebrews of 2021/03/26 “For as Long as it is Called ‘Today'”.
Here is a trustworthy saying for you, Dennis: Thinking about time and space, and how they relate to the things of God, can cause a man’s head to explode.
Yeah, mine exploded some time ago. Now I just accept that He is eternal, and I am in this thing He made for me to be in that is called “time.” I do think about the time/eternity relationship often, but it doesn’t trouble me that I don’t fully understand it since I know He has it all in hand! One consideration about it that’s intriguing to me though: When the question of why we won’t sin in Heaven comes up, there is usually an answer given that has never quite satisfied me. Then, one day it came to me that all change requires time. In Eternity, without time, there isn’t any change. That makes sense of what God says in Malachi 3:6 “…I am the Lord, I change not …”. And a bunch of other things in the Bible and in the world make more sense in light of that point.
(I hope you don’t mind my having a little fun with my comments like “perhaps you could work on …” that. I really do appreciate your thought-provoking, scripture-based, [usually] simple-to-understand posts.)
Of course I don’t mind- I think we’ve understood one another for many years now 🙂
At the age of seven, I became the proud owner of an autograph book. The first person I asked to sign it was my father. He wrote. “Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday – and it never happened.” Wise words – in line with this great post. God bless you, Don.
Many thanks Mandy!