Article June 7, 1993 Issue

Never ask for tomorrow

You don't need to look to the passage of time for the resolution of problems. God's goodness is available today!

Irene Schanche Bowker

Haitians have a proverb "Deye mon gen mon," which means, "Behind every mountain is another mountain." Perhaps this saying merely reflects a practical view of obstacles that must be surmounted tomorrow, but many people feel an uneasiness, even a fear, that they can never really be free of obstacles, that they can't progress. When we're feeling overwhelmed, we may be tempted to put things off—to say to ourselves, "I'll deal with that tomorrow"—with the vague hope that somehow the passage of time will make solving a problem easier.

Such attitudes would keep us from recognizing the good that is always right at hand. In my own experience more than once I've been stirred to change my perspective, to adopt a spiritual view that helps me see more readily the never-ceasing, never-fluctuating continuity of good.

This concept can be difficult to grasp if we think of ourselves as isolated, self-motivated, chance-based mortals. Such a view is what makes coping with problems seem tenuous at best, impossible at worst! But when we understand even a little of our relationship to God, when we see that we're His spiritual ideas, created, forever maintained, and divinely directed by a Father who cherishes His offspring with both motherly tenderness and fatherly strength, it's natural to expect a good-filled day. Then, like the Psalmist we can declare, "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." As I've become more aware of what is possible when I approach my day from this standpoint, I've been comforted and buoyed.

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