Word of the Day: Tomorrow

The great Christian author C.S. Lewis wrote a fantastic little book called The Screwtape Letters. The book consists of 40 or so letters from Screwtape, a high ranking demon in hell, to his nephew Wormwood, giving him advice for how lead a Christian to hell. His advice is to have him commit sin yes, but small sins. Sins that are easy to rationalize and forget about, but build up on the soul and create habits, like laziness and jealousy, that are incredibly un-Christian. In one letter, Screwtape tells Wormwood to keep his subject's attention focused on anything but the present.

Ideally, he tells him, fix his thoughts on the past. The past is the absolute worst place for our minds to dwell because there is absolutely nothing we can do about it (I'm only in high school, but I don't think time travel is possible). All we can do is accept it, but when we live in the past we are expending our energy into an abyss that will drain and give us nothing in return. Now, that's not to say the past should be forgotten, banished from our mind. The past is useful. We remember our mistakes from the past and apply so that we don't make them again. But when we do so, we aren't living in the past, we are bringing it into and applying it to the present. The same goes with happy memories. I went through the two greatest weeks of my life this summer, and I think back on them every day. But when I do, I don't abandon the present and relive them, I take what I learned and all the happiness I felt and use the memories to surmount whatever my next obstacle is. Well at least I try too.

Point 1: Yesterday is gone and isn't coming back (sorry Paul).

Screwtape continues - if you can't get them to dwell in the past, have them look ahead. If we live in the future, the present becomes the past and thus worthless (see point 1) when it really isn't. I don't know where I'm gonna be this time next year, but if I spend my time worrying about it, I effectively throw away a year of my life. We won't know what the future holds until it becomes the present, so hold your horses and be patient. But, Screwtape writes, the future is dangerous (for us demons). Because it isn't set in stone and we can affect it right now. Planning for the future is today's task because tomorrow, today will be yesterday, unchangeable. So get it done in the present where you can make it the way you want it to be now instead of hopelessly wishing it to be the way you want it later.

Point 2: Tomorrow starts right now.

I know you've probably heard variations of this a million times before and you're thinking, "Sheesh Matt, you sound like my Mom." Well I guess that's good because Mom and C.S. Lewis sure know what's up.

A Prayer:

Lord God,

I know that yesterday has come and gone, and tomorrow has not yet arrived. So now I pray for forgiveness for past mistakes, so that I may experience Your mercy in the present. Now I thank You for past victories, so that You may be glorified in the present. Now I pray for the humility to accept your plan for me, so that I may shape my future in the present. And now I offer up my tomorrow to You, so that You may work through me in the present.

Amen.

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

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

Matthew 6:25-34

God bless,
Matt