Religion in Daily Life

By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org

“Now on the cusp of war overseas, the United States also stands at the second-highest level of alert at home,” said a Philadelphia Inquirer article on Wednesday, March 19. On the public side of things, we all have to learn to face unknown tomorrows. On the personal side, too, we face uncertainties about our health, our employment, our relationships, and our outlook on life. In the Book of Proverbs are these words: “Never boast about tomorrow. You don’t know what will happen between now and then” (27:1). What can we do as we face the unknown tomorrows?

We can conceive constructive thoughts about tomorrow. In 1889, Mark Twain wrote a letter to Walt Whitman on Whitman’s 70th birthday. Twain congratulated Whitman on the great births he had witnessed during his lifetime: the steam press; the steamship; the steel ship; the railroad; the telegraph; the gas light, and many other inventions. “You have seen the application of anesthesia to surgery-practice,” wrote Twain. As Twain conceived constructive thoughts about tomorrow, he wrote to Whitman, “Tarry for a while, for the greatest is yet to come.” Mark Twain saw that there are unimaginable positive gifts in our tomorrows.

We can believe God’s good purpose for tomorrow. In the year 588 B.C., a spokesman for God named Jeremiah was locked up in Jerusalem. The army of Babylon was attacking the city. Battering rams pounded at the city gates. People huddled behind locked doors. Nevertheless, Jeremiah believed God’s good purpose for tomorrow. To show his faith, he bought a piece of land in that threatened place. God spoke in Jeremiah’s mind, giving him a promise for his nation’s future and saying, “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 LB).

We can achieve a sense of perspective about tomorrow. In 1871, a young man picked up a book. He read twenty-one words that changed his life. He was a medical student at McGill University. He had been worrying about all those tomorrows ahead of him. Then he read these twenty-one words from Thomas Carlyle: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” The young man was William Osler. In years to come, he became one of the most respected medical men of the 19th century. He organized a clinic at the Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland. He learned to put his tomorrows into perspective.