Day 2740 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
Psalm 118:24 NKJV
A new day. Something that's arguably one of the biggest gifts that’s most commonly taken for granted. We all take another day for granted. We just assume tomorrow will be there. We assume that today is just another step in this journey that seems to last forever, and so we can afford to waste it on things like anger or laziness or complacency or a whole host of other worthless pursuits. How many days have you given away because they didn't start off just right? How many days have you chalked up as just another bad day because one little thing went wrong?
It's something that all of us do more often than we probably realize. We judge the day by how it starts or what happens as the hours and minutes tick away. We base our happiness on whether or not we get our way and are afforded the luxury of ease and tranquility. We jump to this foolish assumption that we can just throw these remaining hours away because tomorrow will be better. We have all wasted so many days under this pretense that they were simply bad days. We allowed days to slip by into the past because we just didn’t like everything that happened within them.
We had to do something we didn't want to do so it was just a bad day. We got cut off in traffic and had to sit at a stop light, bad day. The staff at the drive thru made our lunch wrong, bad day. We didn't get all of our errands done, bad day. We had to work a little extra, bad day. We got stuck with the angry customer, bad day. We were awakened early by a horde of dogs losing their minds, bad day. Rent's due, bad day. Neighbor didn't wave back, bad day. Need gas and don't want to spend the time to pump it, bad day. Stubbed your toe, bad day. Burnt dinner, bad day. A single cloud in the sky, bad day.
I'll assume you get my point. There are going to be things that happen every single day that we don't like or that we wish we could avoid. But will we allow those momentary inconveniences to lead us to throwing away an entire day to being angry or frustrated or upset? Will we continue to allow one situation to define the rest of the time a day holds? Will we continue to allow ourselves to give so much weight to the difficulties and the struggles and pains that we face? Will we continue to allow happiness and contentment and peace and gratitude to elude us because they're sometimes harder to find?
You know my friends, although we often forget it, happiness is choice. It's always a choice. It's always an option. Now granted, it's not always the easiest choice. It's not always the basic reaction to the things we deal with in life. But the fact remains the same: happiness is a choice. Will you make that choice? Will you set your heart to seeking happiness no matter how any given day may unfold? Will you stop letting the negative things you face have the power to define your entire day? Will you toss aside 23 hours because one was a little rougher than you would have liked?
What we all need to always remember is that this day is a gift that the Lord has given us. Will it be our definition of perfect? Probably not. Will the hours ahead bring unforeseen situations that we're not ready for, situations we won't enjoy? Yeah. Are we going to have problems and pains and potentially problematic unpleasantness? Yep. It's life. It doesn't always go how we would prefer it go. We don't get to choose our favorite options from some menu of possible outcomes or scenarios.
We just get to open our eyes to the light one more time. We get to step into another collection of hours of excited and expectant mystery. We get to breathe and take in whatever we choose to focus on in this time we've been given today. There will be bad, but there will be good. We will have problems, but we'll have blessings. Things will go awry, and things will go better than we imagined. In every moment, in every circumstance, in every breath, we're the ones who have to remember that this is the day we've been given to live and that we have the right and the ability to choose to be happy no matter how it unfolds.
Please make that choice today. Don't allow the frustrations and problems you face to outshine the good that this day holds. As we've been discussing a bit lately, peace is possible. Happiness is possible. Joy is possible. But they all rely on our desire to find them. Some days they are harder to find, but they're still there. So look harder if that's what it takes. We have to do whatever we can to embrace this journey that we're on. This is our story, and although all the chapters have been written, we still have the opportunity to decide how we react as the story unfolds.
This is the day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it. Not because it's perfect. Not because it isn't loaded with things we would like to avoid. But because it's a gift we don't deserve. Because it's a chance to experience a little more of this life that God has made for us. Because it's a chance to hear birds sing, watch clouds float on by, eat something we enjoy, talk to our family and friends, maybe even share the name of Jesus with somebody. Now it may not be perfect, but all of those things are pretty special.
And maybe they're exactly the kinds of things that we should focus on instead of what tends to irritate us.
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