Thought for the Day - Wednesday 16 September

Thought for the Day – Wednesday 16^th September

‘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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”’ (James 4: 13-15)

 

What is it Robert Burns’ once said in his poem ‘To a mouse’ – ‘the best laid schemes of mice and men’!

 Making plans used to be such an integral part of everyday life – we made plans for the day, plans for the week, plans for the weekend, garden plans, plans to visit family and friends, holiday plans, savings plans, retirement plans, plans for the different ‘seasons’ of the liturgical year like Advent and Lent and Christmas and Epiphany and Pentecost – all sorts of plans and usually making all these plans gave us great enjoyment and a wonderful sense of anticipation and, of course, something to look forward to!

Making plans seemed to somehow give us a sense of peace about what lay ahead for us in our lives, perhaps even gave a clear sense of direction to our lives and, of course, as humans this usually meant we would do all in our power to ensure that those plans came to fruition and our expectations of those plans were met.

 How times have changed since coronavirus came into our lives, while we may have said in the past that ‘we never know what tomorrow will bring’ and believed that we understood what that meant, now I feel we truly do understand what that phrase means because we literally do not know what tomorrow may bring with the rules of our ‘new normal’ changing day by day.

 We may make a plan to visit with someone indoors only to be told we are no longer allowed to meet with them indoors. We may think it safe to make plans to leave one part of Britain to meet with family only to be told only six can meet together where in one part of the country children under twelve don’t count in that total but in another they do!

 So now in the days of coronavirus, even though we may make our plans, tentative though those plans may be, we just never know what tomorrow will bring because in an instant a rule may change and those plans may have to be altered or abandoned altogether. 

 In light of this our ‘new normal’, perhaps what our text today is trying to encourage us to realise is that while as humans we may think it necessary in life to always be looking ahead and making our plans and that it may be beneficial to do so, it is also valuable just to take each day as it comes, to value each day for what it is and to be open to the opportunities each day may bring.

 

Prayer

 

Loving Lord,

We praise and thank you for this day. We thank you for life, for one more day to love and for the opportunities it may hold. We thank you for one more day to work for justice and peace. We thank you for our neighbours near and far, one more person to love and by whom to be loved. We thank you for your grace and the opportunity to experience it afresh this day and for your promise to be with us each and every day. May our love of you encourage us to value this day and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.