"I'll See You Tomorrow" (MAYBE)
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
This is a normal sentence with problematic assumptions. “I’ll see you tomorrow” is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us each day our daily bread.”
What do I mean?
You can only commit to see someone tomorrow if thousands of unseen events converge to continue the momentum of your “normal.”
Your heart keeps beating and so does theirs. Your brain gets enough oxygen. You closest loved ones continue breathing. Your car starts when you turn the key. You are safe from crime and catastrophe.
Most of us know someone who was suddenly interrupted by meningitis, heart attack, car accident, or stroke.
“I’ll see you tomorrow” can be spoken in joyful dependence on God that recognizes each day is a gift. But that is notwhere our hearts start and not where we drift in the current of this self-confident world.
We live in a world of James 4 hubris, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
Jesus prays, “Give us each day our daily bread.” Jesus teaches us to depend on God for day-to-day sustenance.
We live in an unbelievably self-sufficient and safe society. It seems ridiculous to talk to God about daily bread when we’re all trying to figure out how to eat less after the holidays.
The grace we live in must not blind us to the frailty of our lives. Our lives grow God’s way when we recognize our utter dependence on Him.
Can promise you will be alive and hear tomorrow? No.
James 4 says, “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.” As the Lord told us–we can’t add an hour to our lives. Psalm 3 tells us that we go to sleep and wake again because the Lord sustains us.
Depending on God for your daily bread is a necessary perspective for being a meaningful part of “your kingdom come, and your will be done.”
If we can’t keep ourselves alive–how can we imagine we are the source of the solution to the problems we see?
God has given you real meaningful strength to use for His glory and the good of others. The sooner you realize how profoundly small your strength is and how fragile you are, the sooner you will look to God to supply strength and use your strength as He intends.
The prayer for daily bread is the prayer, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).
In praying for daily bread, Christians can recognize that their strength is not enough. They can also rejoice that God provides the strength for each day!