One of my children's funniest stories is about the time they tried to fool me with a reverse knock, knock joke. They got me to start the joke. "Knock, Knock!" "Who's there?" (I'm thinking fast) "Double '0'." They're not responding, just laughing. I was still formulating the next line when I realized I didn't need it.
The title of this reflection struck me in the wee hours and made me get out of bed to jot down some ideas. I had been promising to visit my shut in friend "tomorrow". Several days later and I still hadn't gotten there. I made it today, but with some deeper reflection.
On the up side, when tomorrow comes it is the present. And that is a great realization that now is a gift, a present, if you like. Doing that thing you promised is fulfilling today.
Opportunities abound in the present: the joy of the project; the job getting done; the reward of the visitation; the blessings of activity and accomplishment.
I searched tomorrow never comes on Google and came up with 115 million results. Some references were songs, including Elvis Presley; some were movies. Yes, putting things off until tomorrow is very common.
When tomorrow never comes sounds like a James Bond movie title. Bond mystery titles set me reflecting on life and time. You only live twice 1967. Yes, you are born again and the second life is eternal. Now that's living!
Then Live And Let Die 1973 struck me. "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it" (Matthew 16:25). Are we ready to give our lives over to the Lord's service so that we may live? It is a simple choice.
The World Is Not Enough 1999. You guessed it: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul"? Mark 8:36.
Quantum of Solstice 2008? How do we maintain the tiny level of comfort or secure feeling in our relationship with God that is necessary for the love of God to survive? It's probably easier than we think, since God is very forgiving and always open to us.
Then there is one of my favorites Die Another Day 2002, not because Pierce Brosnan was in it, but that helped. The temptation of putting off conversion is so universal. I'll do "it" tomorrow - die to sin and live in the spirit. But what if tomorrow never comes?
St Augustine comes to mind. His mother Monica prayed for seventeen years for Augustine to be converted. She insisted; he resisted. Augustine wanted to repent, leave the old world of temptation behind, but not just yet.
Is it our nature to be like that? Or are we just short sighted? Putting things off until tomorrow can catch us in the trap of tomorrow never comes.
Committing to the message of the cross, conversion, is liberating. Who would want to remain a slave? And when we live in the joy and freedom of love and grace, others are affected.
