Living Like There’s No Tomorrow

DateLine (9/20/06 – Nanuet, NY)

“You only go around once in life, so reach for the gusto.” “It doesn’t get any better than this.” “You deserve a break today.” Madison Avenue and their sponsors routinely build the case for living in the present. Last weekend I attended a festival of present day living; a college football game in Tallahassee, Florida, pitting the Florida State Seminoles against the Clemson Tigers. Over 83,000 fans gathered to cheer on their team, the majority of them aligned with the Seminoles. I’m sure that on Sunday morning a throbbing headache reminded a significant number of them that they had not only reached for the “gusto,” but had consumed it. Unfortunately many Americans are caught in a lifestyle of living like there’s no tomorrow.

So what’s wrong with living in the present? Doesn’t the bible tell us to “take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matt. 6:34. Let’s take one story out of the Old Testament to demonstrate the problem with living in the present. Beginning in Genesis 37 a story unfolds that leads to the placement of Joseph, son of Jacob, forefather of Jesus, sold into slavery by His brothers at the right hand of the Pharaoh of Egypt, one of the most powerful men on the face of the earth. God had placed Joseph in the position because God needed a person of faith to lead the Egyptians to store provisions for the future to overcome an impending famine. The stored provisions feed the fledging Israelites in a time of want and preserved the seed of Jesus. Joseph was a type of “savior” not only to the children of Israel but ultimately to ourselves, who claim the name of Christ today.

Now Joseph was living in the present. He heard God in the present and he obeyed God in the present. But Joseph was not living like there was no tomorrow. Some Biblical scholars would say that Joseph’s entire life was committed to the task of the future salvation of his family; even though for most of the time he had no sense of the purpose of his predicament and his ascension to power.

God does expect us to live in the present, take one day at a time, and follow His purpose for our life. Only He knows if this is all we have. The neat thing is that God has future foresight; i.e. omniscience, and if we submit to His purpose for our life, while we’re living in the present, we’re preparing for the future.

There was another Madison Avenue ad campaign a few years back that promised to “Double your Pleasure.” I’ll tell you there is no gum that can “Double Your Pleasure” like the joy of “Living Today Because There is a Tomorrow.”

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. James 4: 13-17.