The Future Comes One Day at a Time

The National Chaplain for the DAV--Disabled Veterans of America, quoted Lincoln as saying: “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” Cool, hugh? And still useful today. To me, that means I don’t have to get it all done now, today. But I can start today. It means there’s less stress and more letting go and letting God. It means allowing for grace and the realization that it is not I but my Father who doeth the work, and that when opportunities for action arise, I can seize them. And it means that my work isn’t so much doing, but undoing, of getting my bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits. “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”

 

The role of military chaplains has changed a great deal since Viet Nam. Chaplains used to be about convincing soldiers that God wanted them to fight. That they were to overcome their fear and moral concerns and kill the bad guys.

 

It’s not like that now. Now many chaplains are about standing for individual conscious and supporting, sometimes even representing, individual soldiers within the military community.

 

Fighting and killing must be the exception. When we have to fight, alright. But let’s stop being so quick to kill and maim and spend our blood and treasure, not to speak of the other guy’s blood and treasure, on it. Let’s cut the so-called ‘defense’ budget. It’s way too big, anyhow. A few judicious cuts and our deficit problems are over. Let’s start now. We don’t have to get it all done now. “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” Let’s use this day wisely and well.