Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Life’s lesson reminds us that everything that has a beginning must have an end. How often have we said goodbye to the friends we made in the past; our high school sweethearts; our college darlings and those we thought we would marry and be happy forever; those we thought our life would be incomplete without them. What about those we thought would make us happy, that without them we would never survive? Well then, here you are, still surviving and still moving on. You are doing well without those friends of yesteryears. Do you even know where they are now? Do you miss them? Aren’t you happy without them? Happiness is not out there; it is in you! You are either happy or you are not. No one can make you happy or sad. It is within your power to be happy or be sad. We are often nostalgic about yesterday, worried about today and apprehensive about tomorrow. Yet life’s lesson continues to warn us that yesterday is gone, there is nothing we can do about it, tomorrow is not yet here, no matter how apprehensive we may be about it, the only thing that counts is now, the present. It is called the present because it is a gift. But do we heed life’s lesson and receive it as a gift? No, not us! How can we ever survive without thinking about today, worrying about tomorrow and crying over the mistakes of yesterday? Joan Rivers expressed this sentiment thus: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God’s gift, that’s why we call it the present”. The Book of Ecclesiastes reprimands us against thinking that yesterday was better than today. “Do not say: How is it that former times were better than these? For is not in wisdom that you ask about this” 7:10.

Have we ever been able to change the course of things by worrying? Christ wants to spare us from unnecessary worries and so asks us to trust God and be rest assured of his providence. “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” Mt. 6:31-34.

So when we think that the past was better than the present let us know that we were not there. If we were, we may have been too young to remember the hardships that grown-ups endured then. Thank God for the past and those whose shoulders we stood so as to see today. For today, see what you can do to better the lots of your neighborhood so that the young ones may come to be grateful to God and to you. Do not say that the problems of today are too overwhelming and so fold your hands and do nothing. Be courageous, put on the gauntlet and go to work for a better tomorrow. For, according to the Spanish Proverb, “There is not enough darkness in the world to extinguish the light of one small candle”.  Let us be that candle shinning in the dark to beacon people who are walking in darkness to the warmth of our light. Yes, Hellen Keller, the American writer and lecturer was right when she said, “ “I am only one. But still I am one, I cannot do everything. I will not refuse to do the something I can do”. If you want today to be better than yesterday then doing nothing to change today for a better tomorrow is not an option.