Tomorrow Never Comes

How much patience do you have?

I am usually a very patient person.  I can work on a problem for hours, testing one approach, then another, on and on until I get to the answer.  But there are some things that test my patience.  Waiting for service in a restaurant is one of them.

Once my order is placed and the wine is poured, I'm fine for a while, but before the menu arrives and the order is taken, I am as impatient as can be.

The longer I have to wait, the more likely I am to get up and leave.

First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!’ - 2 Peter 3:3-4

In today's reading, Peter is trying to get us to stay at the table, to remain seated, waiting for the day that the Lord will come.  Don't blow it by getting up and going about your life as though the promise will not be fulfilled.

For two thousand years, we have been hearing that the end is near, and yet it never comes.  So, how much longer do we wait?

It reminds me of all those movie scenes where the parents are away and the kids decide to have a party in the house.  Invariably, the parents come home before they were expected, and the kids get in trouble.

But fear of reprisal for getting caught doing something wrong doesn't have the same impact as it did when I was a kid.  We tend to turn our noses or raise our finger at threats like that today.

So, what is the real message here?  What can we take away from Peter's words that would give us a meaningful guide to live by in modern times?

First of all, I don't think it is about sitting patiently for something to happen.  We are not waiting to be served.  We are working to get something done.

The warning that the end can come at any time should be viewed more as a reminder of a deadline, an alert that we may not have as much time left to accomplish our goals as we think.

Put off only those things that really don't need to be done, and do those things that are most important in our lives and in the lives of those we meet.

When the time comes that we are asked to explain what we have been doing, who wants to say, "I've been waiting patiently, and nothing happened?"

If you are as old as I am, you may remember a song Frank Sinatra sang, "Forget Domani."  It is about a man trying to convince his lover to just enjoy the moon and the stars and forget about tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes.

In the song, the message comes with an agenda.  The man wants to take advantage of the moment.

Well, we too should look to make the most of each moment, now while we can, before tomorrow comes, not to see what we can get away with, bit to see how much we can contribute to make this a better world for us and those we encounter.

It is time to be impatient.  It is time to get going and do something meaningful.

For tomorrow never comes.

More to come?



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