The New Testament KJV: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”.
Over the years I have received hundreds of phone calls from members of Al-Anon who were worried about the future. I have no idea how often I have said “What does all that have to do with the time between now and when your head hits the pillow”?. In fact “One day at a time’ is a program slogan. Here are a few problems about living in the future.
- God gives me the grace I need for today. If I am am using today’s grace to cover the next 3 months of total days today’s grace is not nearly enough.
- I am way better at predicting potential disasters than I am predicting how God will help me if that day comes.
- The vast majority of things I imagine will happen never actually happen.
- My deeply rooted sense of “I am going to be too much trouble for people” hurts me. Not only can I not predict how God will me in the future help I also can not accurately predict how my family, my friends and frequently people who are strangers to me will help in my time of need.
- As I work my way through life way off in the future, every fear I have ever experienced often pops up to make me feel worse.
- My Al-Anon program does not help me get rid of old fears it just teaches me how to cope right now, on this day, using the tools of the program like the literature, making phone calls, sponsors and most importantly prayers of surrender. Program has no help for me dealing with imaginary, unsurrendered events.
George Caywood 