"This is the day"

It’s funny how life is composed of a few “significant,” key moments and many ordinary moments that we consider “insignificant.”

Think about it: most of us have routines that we follow each weekday with very little deviation. I wake up at the same time, follow the same pattern to get ready each day, hop in my car and drive the same route to work. However, despite the familiarity of my schedule, how am I living and perceiving each day?

We spend many of these “ordinary” days simply anticipating our next significant event – looking forward to our next planned occasion and wishing away time until our calendars reach a certain date. We count down the days of many work weeks, wanting time to pass quickly to Friday afternoon. Is that really how God wants us to live?

I think that God wants us to be expectant, enjoying Him and eagerly anticipating His actions each day. The Israelites demonstrated this for us beautifully. Despite the HUNDREDS of years they had been waiting for Him, the Gospel of Luke tells us that they looked eagerly for the messiah who would save them and fulfill the prophesies that their ancestors had proclaimed. They were so eager and alert that they even mistook John the Baptist for the messiah - Luke 3:15 says, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.” Despite their years of waiting with long gaps in between “significant” or “noteworthy” advancements, these people remained faithful to God and watched for Him to fulfill his promise every day. Beyond waiting expectantly for the messiah, though, these people worshipped and obeyed Him EVERY day. They believed that He would do as He said, but they loved Him regardless of His timeline.

Ouch. Do we do that? Do we look for God, praising Him and asking Him to make each and every day of our lives significant for His purposes, or do we tune out, yearning for the next exciting event planned on our agendas? Do we get excited to wake up and be with Him each morning, or do we groan and shuffle around getting ready for “just another day?” Do we see each day as a gift and an opportunity to reflect Him through our thoughts, words and actions, or do we get annoyed when our prayers aren’t answered instantaneously? Do we even keep believing and loving Him when we don’t see prayers answered immediately, or do we allow our hearts to harden and become bitter?

Heavy questions, I know. Bottom line is this - I think many of us simply try to fill our time without asking God to fill us with Him all of the time. Of course we will remember milestones in our minds more concretely than we will remember what we ate for breakfast three years ago, but are we truly enjoying the abundant life He desires to give us, letting Him be the source of our joy, or simply watching minutes tick by until it’s time for the next externally-stimulating event? Food for thought.

“This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24