The Promise

As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no man can work. Jn 9:4

Yesterday, I was surrounded by the broken of our inner city, as I had committed to a Saturday of ministry. Just before our work began, an African American church deacon prayed his heart out to the Lord. One of his prayer statements struck me and stuck in my brain.
“Thank you, God, that we woke up to a day that we have never seen before and---and the end of this day--- will never see again.”

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the brilliant German theologian and passionate follower of Christ, came for a lecture series to Union Theological Seminary just before the second World War, he sought a worship experience that might bring him closer to Christ. He did not find it in the great white churches in New York City; he found it in the African American churches in Harlem. Just so, many of us have found that our African American colleagues can often speak truth in passionately succinct ways that simultaneously skewer both the heart and mind. It was that way for me that Saturday.

“We woke up to a day we have never seen before”
---What promise God hands us each new day---what opportunity.

“And---at the end of this day---will never see again.”
---What responsibility comes with the promise---what finality as the day closes---what judgment over a day wasted or one well spent for our Lord.

Do I endure my days to get them done or do I charge into each with God at my side, aware of the opportunity and confident of his ability to accomplish it?

Dear God,
Let me live up to the promise of each new day.
Amen