Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Ecclesiastes 1:5, “The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.”

Background

Isn’t that a vivid image that our verse provides today? It’s starkly different from one I saw this summer. My kids are on the swim team for the pool we go to, and at one particular practice, the swimmers were being, shall I say, corrected for their poor performance in the swim meet the night before. It seems that our entire team had an unusually high number of disqualifications during the meet, mainly because of illegal or incorrect strokes. The turns when you reach the wall, and the way you kick your legs and move your arms, are all scrutinized by a stroke judge, and one mistake eliminates you from scoring any points, regardless of how well you finish in the race. So to regain our swimmers’ focus, the coaches had them swim a lap from one end of the pool to the other. That’s not unusual, except that this time, when they climbed out of the pool, they had to do pushups while an adult stood over them and counted. Then they walked back to the other end and repeated the process again and again. And there was no hurry in the kids’ steps as they returned to where they had begun.

Application

And what of your day today? How did your sun return to where it rises? Did it hurry around through the night and greet you eagerly, or did yours trudge along and meet you begrudgingly? If you had the chance, would you send it back and try to redo yesterday all over again? Does it rise and bring with it worries and panic? For my sister, it brings a return visit to the oncologist because a mammogram on Friday raised some concerns. So her sunrise probably looks a little different than many of ours, even if it is reflecting off of the Gulf of Mexico. But each of us has today to spend to prep the sun for its journey back to where it will rise tomorrow. And how will we use the time? What kind of sunrise will we be creating for tomorrow? Some of it is out of our hands, but too much of it we simply pay too little attention to. So make today something worth building on. Let your sun hurry back and jump at the chance to start a new day.

Charge

As we seek Him today, consider how unique today is, and do everything you can to keep it that way. Take the sun to the limit, and then rest up and get ready for another go tomorrow.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words