Rhonda Reese Purtee

I’m a task-oriented person.  I’m pretty sure, if there were a hidden camera on me I would be caught with a little grin on my face every time I checked something off my task list.  And oh yes, I have a task list, which is synced with my web-based calendar and my laptop calendar and my Smartphone calendar.  I am definitely list-centric.   It’s not a bad character trait to have,  it allows me to keep a pretty heavy schedule operating fairly smoothly.  There is a drawback though, if I don’t get The List completed by the end of today, then tomorrow becomes just a continuation of today. I have to finish all those items that are now in red, before I can begin the new day’s tasks.  That leaves less time to complete the new day’s tasks, so there is more carryover the next day.  Before you know it, I’m never working on today’s plan.  I’m always working in the past.

I noticed something as I’ve been reading through Genesis this month.  There’s an idea that’s repeated in the Creation Story that I’m “getting” this time through. It’s a good idea to pay special attention whenever God repeats Himself in His Word, and He repeats Himself a lot in chapter one.   “Evening came, and then morning:” followed by the number of days, the first day, the second day, the third day…is repeated six times in the first chapter.  That stood out to me, and I started to wonder, “Why didn’t God create everything all at once?”  I mean, He’s God.  He could have, in a single moment, spoken everything into existence.  But He didn’t choose to do it that way.  He had a new plan for each day.

The process that He modeled for us is one of renewal.  Each day was new, with its own unique purpose.  No carry-over from yesterday.  For someone like me, who struggles to remember that The List is supposed to work for me, not the other way around, it is a liberating thought.  At the end of each day is a period, not a comma.  When I wake up in the morning, it is a brand new day; Thursday, not Wednesday Part 2.  If God, in His perfection, chooses to do things in stages – rather than all at once, why do I loose sleep over what’s not done yet?  If I walked in obedience to the opportunities that the Lord placed before me today, then I accomplished what He needed done, regardless of what my list says.

So, I’m going to start putting periods instead of commas at the end of each day and I’m going to stop subordinating today’s purpose to yesterday’s plan.