Dr Paul Allen

For those prone to procrastinate, tomorrow can sound like the magic word. With a simple wave of tomorrow, dirty dishes seem to vanish, hard conversations disappear, emails hide, and house projects stand by patiently. How wonderful it can feel to send today’s undesirables into the fog of tomorrow — and how ready tomorrow is to receive them! Yes, we could take care of such responsibilities today, but why when there’s always tomorrow? Then, of course, tomorrow comes, and the magic vanishes under the weight of undone tasks. And we again realize, in the frustratingly wise words of Alexander MacLaren, No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. (The Conquering Christ and Other Sermons, 143) If an unwelcome task is a thorn, tomorrow will not change

Making Plans for Tomorrow The Galilean worshipers whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices (Luke 13:1) were all making plans for tomorrow. They were all making plans for how they were going to spend their time once they got back from temple worship. The men in Jerusalem that the Tower of Siloam fell on and killed (Luke 13:4) were all making plans for the summer. They expected to live long enough to get married, to have kids, to see their kids get married, to grow old with their spouse, to be grandparents. To be sure, they all knew they were going to die, someday. If you asked them, “Do you realize that death is certain?” every last one of them would have said, “Yes, of course.” But what was their problem? They all thought that death was out there, somewhere in the distance. They all flattered themselves that they had plenty of time before they had to think about that, plenty of time to make preparations, to clean up their act, to “get right with God.” And then the day ca