Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  Matthew 7:34

Are you like me (for those who know me I’m not trying to be insulting)?  You have a great book.  You are about two chapters into it.  You’re into it enough to see that there are going to be multiple twists and turns.  Then you do it (or it least I do).  You turn to the last ten or so pages and you read the end!  I know I should wait but I just can’t help myself.  Fortunately for me it doesn’t destroy the enjoyment out of reading how the author gets from where I was to whatever the end ends up being.  Yet as I go back and read through the book, in the back of my mind I know what the end is going to be.

It’s even that way when I read historic novels or factual books.  It may seem dire for an American Army Unit in the city of Bastogne in WWII, but I know that relief is just days away and they will be saved.  I know their fear will turn to joy.  I wish that I could somehow go back in time and tell Sgt. Frank Sharpe:  “Hang in there buddy, tomorrow you will be relieved and people will call you and your fellow 101st Airborne soldiers heroes!”  I think how great it would be for them to know that.  If they could see the future.  But then I wonder about Pvt. Sharpe in boot camp.  What if he really knew all the pain and horror that he was going to experience over the next three years ahead of time, knew it for a fact?  How hard would it be for him to go through it.

God, how we ask to know.  Show me God what my life is going to be like.  Show me before I start the outcome of my path or this decision.  For me at least, those requests come from the faithful certainty that, in the end, God’s will, will be done and glorious things will happen.  I think of Joseph, leader of Egypt, David King of Israel, Peter leader of the new Church and of course Jesus Christ at the Right Hand of our Father Almighty.  What I forget about is Joseph in prison, David hiding, afraid for his life in a cave, Peter, bitterly sad over denying Christ, and the pain of Christ on the Cross.

Truthfully, as the movie says:  “I can’t handle the truth.”  My faith is not misplaced, there will be glory in the journey.  Yet through my sin and falleness of this earth, there will be pain, disappointment and many tears.  I think of the fatigue at the end of a very trying day or even week.  What if I knew ahead of time about the trying years or worst to get to the glory.  That I would need to go through that to learn the lessons that would let me truly experience the greatness of God in my life.  Would I even get out of bed?

I heard a very example on this recently on a radio program.  The pioneering geneticist Dr. James Watson, recently gave a sample of his blood to researchers so that they could break down the sequence of his DNA to see all the genes in his body.  Through this process they can see indicators or propensities for certain illnesses or other traits.  He told them that they could report all the results to him except one.  He did not want to know if he his genes showed a likelihood of him contracting Alzheimer’s.  He said that he had watched his grandmother die of the disease and it was a horrible experience for him.  He did not believe that there were any significant things he could do to prevent the disease or to do things ahead of time to diminish its impacts.  So, if he was likely to get the disease he did not want to spend time worrying about it.  A very wise man I believe.

God knows what we can handle.  He will never gives us more in a day then we can handle.  He taught us to pray for daily bread.  He tells us that He is in control and is the same from yesterday, to today, and into tomorrow.  We will change.  He will not.  He knows that as I worry about tomorrow, I miss the blessings of today.  He knows I will be tempted to play Him (God that is) and change my tomorrow, not having the wisdom to understand the dire impacts that attempt would have if it were to succeed.

I should know that God created me; created me in love.  That God gave me today as a gift.  Through the gift of His Son Jesus Christ, God gave me a way to come to Him and be with Him, today and for all days.  He tries to get me to see that I shouldn’t try to race to the end and miss out on what He wrote for me for today.

May it be for me and for all us that He and His love is the only Truth I need know.

Amen