Direction for the Day

I think there are essentially two ways to start our day. We can just get up and let the day happen to us, or we can get up and see if we can get some direction as to what would help us have a good day. For me, a good day is a productive day—one that at the end of which I can retire tired and at peace.

Regarding the first approach, my mind goes back to an attitude I heard expressed often in my young adulthood; it has a number of variations: ‘hang loose;’ ‘go with the flow;’ ‘take it easy,’ etc. A song from the ‘70’s sung by Otis Redding expresses it well: “Sittin' on the dock of the bay—wasting time.” You get the drift. The problem with this approach is captured in a rather visual symbol that has stuck with me: ‘Only a dead fish goes with the flow (or faces down stream).’

The religious expression of this first approach is stated thus: “There shall be many which shall say: ‘Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us…God…will justify [us] in committing a little sin…there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.” It appears that many hope this will be the case. Well, I am convinced that they will so hope in vain.

Conversely, I am persuaded by the other basic approach for a successful start to one’s day: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding; In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Other one-liners from my faith give some always-to-be-remembered advice:

--Things that matter most must not be at the expense of the things that matter least.
--Don’t get caught up in the thick of thin things.
--Men are free…knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon.
--Wo unto him that…wasteth the days of his probation.

I end with this related thought from C. S. Lewis: “The real problem…comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in—and so on, all day.”

Have a good day.