If Today Were the Last Day of Your Life

November 4, 2020 Andrew Forrest

If today were the last day of your life

you wouldn’t spend it fretting in anxiety about an election outcome over which you have no control;

you wouldn’t foment a sense of outrage at people who have the wrong facts, opinions, and ideas;

you wouldn’t frantically refresh your newsfeeds to see what’s changed in the last 4 minutes.

If today were the last day of your life

you’d savor every sip of your coffee;

you’d smile at the sight of every human face, considering it a great privilege just to be in that person’s presence;

and

you’d be grateful to God for every breath you had left.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Jesus of Nazareth