Guidelines For Living

Guest (Male): Take a break from your busy schedule and join Harold Sala for Guidelines For Living.

Harold Sala: Have you ever stopped to think that today is the smallest division of God-given time? Seconds, minutes, hours are artificial; they're man-made time divisions. But the period of time from dawn to dusk is the shortest division of time on God's clock.

Time is a strange commodity. It is something like fence posts or telephone poles that you pass as you drive down the highway, but like a fence, it encloses your life. And between the two poles of life and death, you are very much a prisoner of time.

The perplexing part about it is that we all know when time began, at least for us individually, since time is generally reckoned from the date of your birth. But we are never quite sure when God will press the stopwatch of time and time will become history, at least for us.

Have you ever thought much about the way that time governs or controls your life? Perhaps as no other generation, we are slaves to the clock. We are bound by schedules and deadlines, and we tend to think the world will just stop unless we make those deadlines. Sometimes it's good to realize that when schedules go awry, life will go on.

That somewhat painful realization was driven home in my life the day following a speaking engagement in Cardiff, Wales. My wife and I had taken the overnight train to London, where we were to meet a tour group that was about to depart for the continent.

When we arrived at the station in London, we thought there was plenty of time to transfer from one station to the other. Being young and not having much money, we decided to take the underground. So we bought our tickets and boarded.

But a few minutes into the journey, the underground train slowly coasted to a stop—dead stop—and we were a hundred meters or so underground. How were we to know that the engineers were going on strike and we got caught in the middle of it?

We sat there and stewed and fumed. If we didn't get to our destination, we would miss the train and the tour that we had paid for. And the longer we sat there, the higher was my stress level.

I think I learned a lesson that day, somewhat painfully too. What we believe is so important at the time really may not be as important as we think. Life goes on when your plans go awry. There is a reason why you must learn to live one day at a time. God has promised direction and help for just today.

Time and time again, the Bible emphasizes the importance of today. God promised, "As thy days, so shall your strength be." When Christ taught his disciples to pray, he said, "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread."

And there you have it. Give us our daily bread today. Not tomorrow, God, not even next year, but just meet our needs today. You may be frustrated because your schedule, your plan hasn't worked out. There's good news. God promises to help you today.

He said, "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him." Living in the present doesn't mean that you disregard the past or you take the future for granted. It just means you find God's grace to cope with the flight that's canceled, the stock that fails, the loan that doesn't get paid, the train that doesn't arrive on time, and tomorrow's hopes. Yes, may God help us to find his strength just for today.

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