Thursday, October 16, 2014
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Our youngest son was not looking forward to the drive back to college. Oh, he liked to drive, but not 14 hours alone. In fact, his un-favorite state coming from New Jersey to the Midwest – Pennsylvania. Now, this has nothing to do with the scenery. It has nothing to do with the people. Pennsylvania is a great place. It has to do with the length of Pennsylvania. It's about twice as long as any other state between home and college for him. So, when you're driving, it seems like it's the eternal state. Please, no hate mail from Pennsylvania. You can address it to my son. This is not my fault. And that was years ago as a college student.
Now, every other time that he returned to college, he had people with him. But as this day approached when he'd be driving alone, the dread of this longest day was growing. I mean, he was worried about having an older car, he was worried about a sleepy driver, and he was wishing there really was such a thing as a Star Trek transporter. That long trip was discouraging until we made a suggestion that changed everything. We said, "Why don't you break up the trip?" So we arranged for a place to stay along the way, and he split the long journey into two manageable days. You know what? He enjoyed the trip. (Parents are so smart!)
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Breaking Up Your Long Trip."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Deuteronomy 33:25. It happens to be one of my anchor verses. It is a simple, great promise from God. He says, "Your strength will equal your days." That's a pretty strong hint as to how you're supposed to handle life-days. Now there are other hints in the Bible. "This is the day the Lord has made." "Take up your cross daily and follow Me." "Give us this day our weekly... no, wait... monthly... no, our daily bread." See, it's all about days.
This is how God dispenses the spiritual and emotional resources we need to make it. He does it in 24-hour increments. The King James Version says "As your days are so shall your strength be." So you get Tuesday's strength for Tuesday. But if you're trying to run ahead and work on your Wednesday while you're still in Tuesday, you're going to sink because guess what? You've only got Tuesday's strength. We tend to say, "How am I ever going to get through this week, this month, this year? How am I going to get through this illness? How am I going to get through this tragedy, this crisis, this pain?" God's answer, "A day at a time."
My wife had hepatitis some years ago. She's always been such an important part of our ministry. You know, I already had a very, very full life; full of responsibilities. Suddenly she was out of commission and I had her responsibilities too! Life was very full, and our pastor's wife, who knows how our family worked said, "Ron, your wife has been out of commission for five weeks. How have you handled the load for five weeks?" I thought it was a good question, especially since I had months to go like this. I said, "Joanna, I haven't handled five weeks. I did 35 days." That's how God designed it.
It could be you're in emotional trouble right now because you're trying to deal with the weeks ahead and the months ahead, the "what ifs" and the "mights." You're like our son looking at that big trip. You're feeling overwhelmed; you're discouraged by the size of it. But then he broke up the long trip into manageable pieces and it changed everything. It's the same journey, but now it's doable. Worry stresses us because it runs ahead of today and it runs ahead of God's strength given on a daily basis.
Jesus has everything you're going to need to make the trip ahead. He has the money, He has the people, He has the energy, He has the grace, He has the wisdom, and He has the guidance. But He's going to dispense it to you as you need it for today-today's resources. So stay very close to Him, clinging to your Savior each new day.
So if you're looking down the road at a journey that you're not sure you can handle, please quit trying to deal with the whole trip at once. Do it God's way. Break it up into days. It's so exciting to wake up each morning and be able to say, "This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it." You, Jesus, and a day. That's a trip you can do.