REV. BOB PERLESS
Sunday was a day of rest, church in the morning and evening. No work was to be done. Then came Monday, wash day; Tuesday, ironing day; Wednesday, cleaning day; Thursday, baking day; Friday, window washing day; and Saturday, shopping day. In a week you covered it all. If weather interfered, a day would be switched.
The Bible sees a day as a gift from God to each one of us. We are stewards of what we have been given, to use wisely and to enjoy reasonably. If you can see the day, each day, as God’s gift to you, isn’t it going to have an effect on how you handle the day, and what you do with it? And so, a couple of thoughts on this 24 hours of time given to each of us.
As the years pass, life gets a little more complicated. We become aware of problems, sadness, disappointments and hardness. Our enthusiasm for the day is lost.
There is a mother who calls upstairs to her son, early one morning, and says. “Son, it is Sunday morning; time to get up and ready for church.”
No response, so she calls again, and a third time with rapping on the bedroom door.
This time the son stirs, and says, “I don’t want to get up. I don’t want to go to church. The choir is awful, the sermon is boring and the people aren’t friendly.”
The mother says, “ Son, I will give you two reasons why you have to get up and go to church: you are 44 years old, and you’re the minister.”
Two people appreciate each day: A child, and the person who has come close to losing it all. That person may have lost a loved one, or faced an almost-death situation, or a life-threatening illness. Those situations make you stand at attention and see what you have.
But too often we develop a “someday” attitude. We have so much to do, we are so busy, that we will get to it, someday. We forget the Earth around us. We’re too busy to see the color of flowers in summer, or the unique autumn leaves. We’re too busy to develop a friendship, and do something for someone else … until we almost lose it all.
Today, tomorrow, and each day of our lives there will be surprises built in for us to discover. Wherever you are, whoever you are, see today as a gift from God to you. Thank God for it!
THE REV. BOB PERLESS, retired from the Reformed Church in America, served The Church on the Hill in Flushing, N.Y., for more than 35 years.
CLERGY COLUMN
¦ Local clergy wishing to write should contact Lois Hart at lhart@gwi.net. Lay ministers as well as ordained clergy may contribute.
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