Not Today, but Yes Tomorrow

When we human beings are immersed in frustrating circumstances, all too often we forget that life goes on, that with a little patience and effort on our part we will get through them. The circumstances surrounding us at one moment will not always be the same in the future. There is a saying: “No misfortune lasts a hundred years… nor could any body endure it.” By this we mean that, one way or another, troubles of any kind always pass.

In a letter, a friend wrote a sentence that struck me: “If something cannot happen today, that does not mean it cannot happen tomorrow.” He was referring to certain projects we had planned together that had not come to fruition. Deeply saddened, I had written to him lamenting the time that had passed and telling him how frustrated I was that we had not achieved what we had planned.

My friend was right. Just a few years later, circumstances became favorable, and although not everything turned out exactly as we had planned back then, that very project did, in fact, come to fruition—and very successfully! If you are reading this devotional today, it is precisely because that project came to fruition.

For that reason, whatever situation we face in life, we must hold fast to faith and hope. This means we must not give up in the face of difficulties and assume that there can be no solutions to our problems, even if those solutions are not exactly the ones we can envision. Because we are human beings with many limitations, we are sometimes unable to see every possible way out or solution in a given situation.

The story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19 is very interesting. The prophet, afraid that Queen Jezebel was seeking him out to put an end to his life once and for all, said to God: “I alone am left of your prophets.” Elijah was clearly convinced of this. But God had other information—very different indeed from that of the prophet who considered himself the sole survivor. God knew there were many more—exactly seven thousand! To Elijah, he was the only one in Israel who had not bowed the knee to false gods; to God, he was part of a multitude. That is why Elijah also wished to die in the shade of a juniper tree, as you and I do when we fail to take divine possibilities into account.

I think the same thing often happens. You and I have such a limited view of reality that we see only one solution, or simply none at all. From his perspective, God has other statistics and other information, far more reliable than our tentative assessments. What is impossible for us is not impossible for him. Since we cannot see the future, perhaps God sometimes smiles when he sees us suffering over things we believe are impossible or beyond our reach.

And perhaps he shouts to us from heaven—though our deaf ears make it hard for us to hear him—: “Hey, don’t you realize that I am God? Just wait and see.

My friend was certainly right. “If something cannot happen today, that does not mean it cannot happen tomorrow.”

God bless you all!