Not Just Another Day

01/70/2004

How different is this day from yesterday, or the day before yesterday?
How different is today from what tomorrow will hold, and the day after that?
Are we living in the past, wishing we could bring it back, or are we living in the future, waiting for something we have not yet attained?
What about today...this very day?
What will we do with it?
Will we waste it thinking about yesterday?
Will we dismiss it, waiting for tomorrow to come?

What does God’s Word have to say about today?
This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24 (NLT)

Thinking about this very day reminds me of the movie, "Groundhog’s Day." In this movie, the character played by Bill Murray lives the same day over and over. Every morning when he wakes up the same song is playing on the radio, the same people greet him in the hallway on his way down to breakfast in the Inn he’s staying at. He meets the same people on the street and they repeat the same lines each time he sees them. Day after day, it is all repeated over and over again. It is the day God made all right!! And God kept making it over and over...maybe until Bill Murray’s character gets it right.

What if we had that opportunity? What if we could live a day over and over until we were pleased with the results? Maybe we’d said an unkind word, we could then undo it the next day and hold our tongue because it would really be the same day again. If we had eaten too many sweets and put on a few pounds, it wouldn’t matter because the next day we were the same as if we had never eaten those sweets. If we had been a jerk and acted selfishly, the next day we could try it again and practice our unselfishness until we became the very person we desired to be around others. Whatever the day held, we could have a do-over until we were satisfied with who we are, with what we are doing, and the things we would like to accomplish.

What if this is what we are really doing on earth? When we give our lives to God, does He look at this as our "day" of transformation? It seems to take a whole lifetime to us, but to God it is a very brief moment in time. When we seek forgiveness, we are given a fresh new start to try again each day, no matter what the sins of yesterday held.

In this movie, Bill Murray starts out as a total jerk and at first he doesn’t use his repeating Day wisely. He uses it for his own purposes and his own selfish desires, but as time goes on, he sees a greater use for living this same day over and over. He starts to gain some character traits that he didn’t have before, he learns poetry and how to play the piano. He sees places of need and helps out whenever he can. He literally becomes a hero in this small town in One Day. He is the man of the day! After "practicing" this One Day over and over, he is starting to become a totally different person. He’s starting to "get it right."

What can this movie teach us about our own lives? Even though each day we live moves into the next, and we don’t wake up to the same exact day over and over, maybe in a way we do. The date changes, the seasons change and we grow older, but who are we each morning when we wake up? If we don’t look at the date, the seasons or the new wrinkles on our face, who are we on the inside?

I remember my grandma telling me when she was probably in her 80’s, that she felt like she was 18 years old on the inside. I found that to be amazing as a young girl but as I grow older, I understand more of what she was saying. Our spirit does not grow old, it hopefully becomes wiser and more mature, but our spirit is our spirit and it will be until the day we die. How will I recognize my youngest son when I see him again in heaven? Not by the body I knew him in, but by the spirit that I saw behind those blue eyes of his. By the nature of his demeanor, by the kindness of his heart, and by the love that we shared with one another.

Each morning as we wake up, we wake up to our spirit--the spirit that is inside of each of us. It has not aged through the night, I don’t believe it’s even slept...it is the part of us that we cannot see, but it is who we are on the inside along with God’s indwelling Holy Spirit. It is our ageless spirit that will be meeting our Father face to face when our day is done.

Into your hands I commit my spirit;
redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth.
Psalm 31:5 (NIV)

Jesus said these words right before He died for us on the cross. David wrote these words in the Psalms. David was still living, Jesus was about to die. How can these words be appropriate for both occasions? Because they are not only what will happen to believers on their final day, they are also words we are to live by each day of our lives. David committed his life, his spirit, to the Lord. That is why he was able to rejoice in each day, even through hardships and trials.

We wake up each day to our circumstances, whatever they may be. It may be a good day and all will go well, we will say all the right things, we will be kind to everyone we meet and we will be used by God in a mighty way to further His Kingdom...or, we will not have a great day, we will be unkind and ruthless in our dealings with other people, we will not be of great use for the Kingdom of God because we are resisting His leading and refusing to be obedient to His call. It could be a very bad day, or a very good day, or a day somewhere in between.

That’s what we get to watch in Bill Murray’s character. We get to watch all those days "somewhere in between" as his life is transformed from the inside out. At first, he tries to work in a fleshly manner, then somewhere along the way things start to change, he starts to change and the person God has created him to be starts to emerge from the debris of his messed up life. In just One Day, although we know from the progression of things in the movie that it has been a very long period of time, he is not the person he once was. He is becoming the person a lot of us wish we were. He has used this One Day to practice his gifts, to use his talents to help others and to learn how to love as God calls us to love.

For most of us, this transformation will take many, many years. There are sometimes miracle transformations in our lives but for the most part, it is a process. Unlike Bill Murray’s "character" changing in One Day, in a few hours on the big screen, it will probably take our whole lives as God molds our character to look more like Jesus. We will grow old in the meantime and many things in our lives will change over that period of time. We will move into new homes, we will get an education, we will say good-bye to loved ones and we will probably eat too many sweets that will add more pounds to our frame than we would like. The time and the years will take their toll on us, but what about our spirits that are not growing old in the process? What about the person we will be in heaven? Will it seem as if it had only been a day on earth when we begin our eternity without this body to weigh us down? Will all the years and all the turmoil and all the great things we enjoyed here seem but a brief moment in time then? I believe it will!

So what will we do with this "day" that we have on earth?
How will we use it?
What will be most important to us when this "day" is done?

I smile as I pull out my violin each day now to practice. I am only about four days into squeaking and squawking my way through the pages of my beginner book called, "You can teach yourself how to fiddle." I took just a few lessons about 3½ years ago, but then had to put it aside because Phil’s leukemia had started to take a toll on his health again and he needed my attention more than anything else. I have always wanted to play the violin, I think from the age of five, and now that I am in my 40’s, I think it’s time to work on it. I smile because I think of Bill Murray’s character and how he decided that if he were to live the same day over and over, he would learn how to play the piano. Day One produced off-note tinkering. Day One a little more of the same...and so on and so on until finally on Day One, he was a master at his craft and enjoyed entertaining others with it. The people he worked with were astounded; they didn’t know he knew how to play. Well, he didn’t in the morning of Day One, but by the evening of Day One, he could! He had used his "Day" wisely in this area of his life. Things had changed throughout the "Day."

(If this is a little confusing for you, you may want to see the movie. I’m not recommending it as some highly spiritual, evangelistic Christian movie, I’m only using it here as a ways to a means of how we are to rejoice in each day we live. To view the movie or not is up to you!)

Each morning when we wake up, it seems we do wake up to the same life we have known. Some things have changed, but really, isn’t it pretty much the same as yesterday and won’t tomorrow be pretty much the same as today? I’m not talking about catastrophic events that change our lives, or our wedding day or the day a new child is born. These days definitely stand out from the rest, but I’m talking about the days when we wake up to the alarm, get the kids off to school, drive to the office, do the laundry or the grocery shopping, mow the grass, run the errands or pay the bills. Things we do day in and day out because that is what we do in life, we live each day taking care of the things that require our attention.

We wake to the "same day," day after day, just like Bill Murray did. The only difference is that our time is passing, the dates are changing and we are growing older.

But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, "You are my God."
My times are in you hands;
Psalm 31:14-15a

Each day, the day we live is held in the hands of God. It is not just some ordinary, let’s try to get through the day event to Him, it is the day that He has created to watch us grow and learn and get to know Him better. It is not a day that should be wasted thinking that it doesn’t amount to much; each day is a small piece in the life we live here for however long it lasts and we are to accomplish the things that God desires to do through us. Each day that God puts breath in our lungs, He has a reason for it.

There is a prayer that I keep in my Bible and part of it says, "I am blind while light shines around me; take the scales from my eyes, grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief." (Taken from the Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions)

I think we wake each day in darkness, forgetting what we have learned from the day before. There is too much "sleep" in our eyes and we cannot see the light that God has provided in each new day. God’s light is all around us, but we wake to a spiritual darkness that has crept in over night. It seems we can grow in the Lord one day, and then be wondering where He is the next day when we wake up. Little by little, we do learn and grow hopefully, and as the days pass the process of what God is trying to teach us starts to sink in and we begin to carry a part of it with us into the next day. At first we are only tinkering off-key notes on our spiritual piano, but as time goes on our spirits start to play a more beautiful tune as God flows through us more clearly. This begins to happen when we devote ourselves to living each day for Him. It starts to happen when we don’t just crawl out of bed and sleepwalk through the day but we rejoice in the day that the Lord has made and live it out fully devoted to Him.

At first, Bill Murray was not using his "day" wisely. He did silly things, selfish things, crazy things...but as the same day came day after day, he began to understand how he could use it in a much better way. If he was going to be stuck on this One Day for the rest of his life, he might as well embrace it and make the most of it, and he did.

God has given us 365 days most years, and He has given us 24 hours in each day. He has designed it that way, and we will not find ourselves having to live the same day over and over, but the question is, will it seem that way? And what will we do about it when the mundane starts to drag us down because life has just become one day after another of the same old stuff?

Oswald Chambers writes that, "Sometimes it is not difficulty that makes me think God will forsake me, but drudgery." (June 4 "My Utmost for His Highest") We all know what that feels like, it’s just one of those down days when nothing is really wrong but there’s just no spark in our life. We question what we are really doing here on planet earth anyway? There’s not a lot of rejoicing going on, that’s for sure!

When one day blends into the next, when each day seems like the one before it, what are we to do? Praise God!! When we wake up in the morning and we seem to have forgotten just Who God is and what He does for us each day, we should dive into His Word and be refreshed! When troubles seem to be mounting and each day starts to seem even a little harder than the one before, we should Pray with all our might that God will help us sort it out! We should spend time with Him and let Him take the "scales" from our eyes because His light does shine all around us. Let Him grind to dust our "evil heart of unbelief" and believe that this is the day the Lord has made and rejoice in it!

Oswald Chambers goes on to say on June 4th that,

"...as we go in grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, in the present minute. If we have God’s say-so behind us, the most amazing strength comes, and we learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways."

Bill Murray’s character learned how to "sing" in the most ordinary days and ways. His day didn’t change, it was still Groundhog’s Day each day when he woke up, but he changed. He made a decision to live the day out fully, to be transformed into a new creature and to learn how to love other human beings as never before. I don’t know how much God played a part in his character’s thinking, this movie did not "go there," but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something of God from it. God will speak to us in many ways. Some of us will not open our Bible. We will not spend time in prayer and study the Word, but that does not mean God cannot reach out to us in an assortment of other ways until He captures our attention and brings us back to Him, taking the scales from our eyes so that we can see His light that shines all around us.

When we wake up in the morning and hear that same alarm clock beeping at us or the same song being sung that woke us up yesterday, what will we do with this new day we have been given? A day that some will never see because they slipped away into heaven during the night...what will we devote our time and energy to as we realize the gift of each new day? Will we moan and groan as we climb out of bed and look ahead at a day of the same old thing, or will we fall to our knees and thank God for the breath in our lungs, for the sun that shines and for the children we hear downstairs getting their breakfast? Will we thank God for our jobs, for our health and for how far He has brought us in our lives? Will we waste the minutes and the hours that we have been given, or will we learn more of Him and practice the gifts He has given to us until they become a finely tuned instrument of great beauty?

This is the day the Lord has made!!!
What will we do with it?
In an instant they are destroyed,
swept away by terrors.
Their present life is only a dream
that is gone when they awake.
When you arise, O Lord, you will
make them vanish from this life.
Psalm 73:19-20 (NLT)

Someday, somewhere in time we will wake to a new day, in a new place, and we will meet our Maker face to face--we will take a look at our "day" on earth and be held accountable for it. What will our "day" on earth look like to us then?

I won’t tell you how the movie, "Groundhog’s Day" ends, but we know how our lives will end. We will either wake in Heaven or in Hell. We will either have lived our lives for the Lord, or we will have spent our lives making the bed we will lie in for all of eternity that separates us from our Lord.

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! Even the ordinary, even the mundane, even the spectacular, even the awesome, it all belongs to Him and He has given it to us to use wisely. When we wake each morning, let’s not forget what God has taught us the day before but instead build upon it until our lives are a symphony of sweet music to His ears!

Learning each new day,

Diane