Your Daily Task

As seen in the HEARTbeat and Village Voice

Your Daily Task

            Do you have a “to do” list?  Husbands, do you have the infamous “honey-do” list?  At one time or another most of us have had large calendars on our desk, or maybe the binder containing our daily schedule.  Even our smart phones have calendars in them which can directly receive appointment requests to which you either accept or decline.  Everyone wants a piece of our precious daily time.

            It didn’t used to be this way.  The farmers in early 20th century had a schedule, but it was managed by the sun.  The farmer was up at the crack of dawn feeding animals, tending to livestock, or preparing to mount the tractor as soon as enough light was available to see the rows of crops.  There were no watches, no desktop calendars, and certainly no smart phones to accept or deny requests.  Everything revolved around a season, and the sun and rain dictated the activities of the day.

            If you are still working, your day has a schedule.  But don’t think for a minute you don’t have a schedule if you are retired.  We have tee times, pickle ball court reservations, tennis court reservations, and of course the gathering at the coffee shop for a little socializing.  Our days will be scheduled in one way or another until the day we leave this life.

            As Christians we are on a schedule.  We know when our “calendar” ends, we will go to a place where time does not exist; forever is the measure of it.  But we don’t need keep our eyes solely on the turning of the last page of our earthly calendar.  We have daily assignments directly from Jesus Himself.

            I had the honor of getting to know a wonderful woman who lived to be over a century old and has recently gone home to be with the Lord.  Every time I visited with her in her last year, she kept saying, “I’m ready to go home.  Why doesn’t He take me home today?”  I told her we don’t have a vote on the day He calls us home, but we do have a task.  I would say, “If God gives you today, your job is to bless someone.  I don’t know who that is, so you have to find them.  That’s your task for today!”  After a dismissive look, I would always get a smile from her.

            Her days are finished and her calendar on earth has been completed.  Ours are still open and Jesus has given us the task to reach, teach, and make disciples of those He places in our path.  Like the bride who constantly looked for the bridegroom but went about her daily task as if that day was not the day, we are to be mindful that today may be the last day of our earthly calendar, maybe tomorrow.  Like the early farmers, our daily calendars are managed by the Son.  Our task today is to bless someone in His name.  Look for them, find them, and carry out the “to do” list Jesus has given us.