ON THIS DAY...WHAT DOES IT MATTER?

DID YOU KNOW THAT ON THIS DAY IN…

…1594 Henri the IV was crowned the King of France?

…1678 Earl of Shaftesbury was freed from the Tower of London?

…1801 Washington, D.C., was placed under Congressional jurisdiction?

…1813 Congress authorized the use of steamboats to transport mail?

…1951 the 22nd amendment was ratified, limiting US Presidents to two terms in office?

…1984 WRC-AM in Washington, D.C., changed their call letters to WWRC?

…1987 the NCAA canceled Southern Methodist University’s entire 1987 football schedule as part of the ‘death penalty?’

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What does any of this have to do with anything?

On this beautiful Monday afternoon, a random day in the life of the DeRidder-Rosepine-Merryville-Singer metroplex, many of us are simply going about our usual Monday activities. Others of us are enjoying a few days off from school for the Mardi Gras holiday. Still others are engaging in a very memorable moment in life – an engagement, the birth of a child, a new job, etc. If I had to make a guess, I would reckon that in the centuries to come, there might be absolutely no mention of our activity at onthisday.com. And that’s OK.

That’s OK because today matters not because someone down the line will note it for the historical record (or not.)

That’s OK because today matters not because there may be some breakthrough technological revolution begins today.

That’s OK because today matters not because some major geopolitical event that changes history may occur.

That’s OK because today matters not because of anything other than God has given us this day. We have been given this day because of Divine love, grace, and mercy. We have been given this day because of the opportunity we have to embrace and reflect the love of God incarnate in Christ Jesus which is sustained by the Holy Spirit.

After all, while it may not matter much to us that 423 years ago Henri the IV was crowned the King of France, or when steamboats were authorized for mail service in the USA, or when SMU got the death penalty, it mattered then to those who were immediately affected by these events. While they may not seem to have directly impacted us in such a way that this date stands out like 07DEC1941 or 11SEP2001, we have no true way of knowing how things were affected then that does impact us now.

What does it matter? It’s very simply this – to push us into realizing that no matter how inconsequential our day may seem, we don’t know how it will impact things in the long run. Conversely, it matters also because the immediate concerns we may have over a given situation or circumstance may, in the long run, turn out to not be the big hairy mess that we allow to consume us now.

We worship a God of the big picture, not small. May we cling to the hope and promise of the big picture so that we never lose perspective that ALL of life, every day of our life, is not our story, but God’s, and is to be lived not to our satisfactory outcomes, or so that something in which we are directly involved is mentioned in an ‘On This Day’ quip, but to God’s eternal glory.

Grace and Peace, Lamar