If Man Says It, Think The Opposite

     There is a Scripture that is one of my favorites in Isaiah.  I'm sure I've mentioned it a thousand times.  My ways are not your ways, My thoughts are not your thoughts. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways above yours."   Isaiah 55:8-9.  Maybe I didn't translate it word for word, but thought for thought.  In the era of Social media, everyone is a philosopher creating all kinds of quotes out there looking for their viral post.  I've had a few, like "Love and compassion are gifts from GOD but empathy is earned," or "Failure is the flour in humble pie and the stepping stones to success."  Well, I had an epiphany the other day while driving.  I had Air1 on the radio and I heard the lyrics in a song, "You won't have peace until you can let go of tomorrow."  It hit me as if a Mack truck had completely side swiped me while I wasn't looking.  It was like the Holy Spirit shined a truth in my eyes that I always knew, but never knew at the same time.

   I have feared tomorrow for the past ten years in the worst way.  I have feared that I'll never amount to anything in Christ, and yet, I have feared success even worse.  I have feared I'd lose my house, be cut off from the hand that feeds me, lose my children to the devil's minions, anything and everything, and yet, all this time, I never enjoyed today because of that fear of tomorrow.  All my life, even from childhood, I've always looked forward to the next thing or better days, because the present day's evil was constant. I've suffered emotional trauma since I was six-years old, when it began with my mother.  

   When I got out from under her, in college, then I looked forward to getting married and living happily ever after. Well, we all know that young and stupid isn't an expression, it's a fact.  I feel sorry for young people because they have no idea of the trauma headed their way, neither did I.  When I did finally marry, for a short time, things got better.  Then I started looking forward to being a mother, and while I was popping out babies, I always looked forward to the next one, until I knew number 8 was enough.   Then, I looked forward to grandchildren decades later.  When I received my "calling" as they say, I looked forward to being a successful writer, making a positive impact in people's lives, all the while being smacked down with cancer, divorce, and the birdies leaving the nest.  One thing I tell people is that if I had known how much it was going to hurt when the birdies left the next, I may not have laid so many eggs! But, I had a bright future to look forward to, or did I?  Divorce and doubt plagued me and has for ten years.

   It was when my husband divorced me, which I never saw coming, that was when I really began dreading the future. Every other year, empty nest syndrome got closer and closer, and now, it's almost close enough to touch. Life almost became unbearable because I feared being all alone in this big empty house. I needed a back up plan, and a walk along a North Carolina beach was the answer.  So, my back up plan is the sell my house when number 8 goes out on his own, buy a Winnebago and wake up on a different beach every morning. That seems like a future I can handle if I have to handle a future all alone.  

    You know when you have thought a certain way all of your life, it's nearly impossible to change that thought pattern, well, I've always counted on the future to be better than the present and the past.  I never realized just how good the past was until it was in the past.  After I heard that one line in that song, I looked up Scripture and how many times GOD says to remember the past, and how many times GOD said to worry about tomorrow, and it hit me, again. Man thinks the opposite of GOD.  Notice just how many times GOD wants us to remember the past and what He has done for us, and how many times He wants us to look forward to the future.  There is no comparison.  He tells us that He will deliver us in the future, but over two hundred times He tells us to remember the past.  

   Being a social media person that I am, I can't count how many times I've read posts that say to let go of yesterday, especially since my husband left me, during all these grieving years of watching him walk away from everything we planned and hoped for, as well as my children walking away from our home and GOD. It says to remember four times as many times as the word tomorrow in the Scriptures.  YHVH does not want us to forget the past, He wants us to always remember it and count on Him for deliverance for that which ails us, and grief is what ails me.  Fear of the future of tomorrow is what ails me.  Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow for today has enough worries of it's own.  I don't how many times I told my high school friend that, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, meaning just what Jesus said. Today has enough problems of its own, don't worry about tomorrow. I would say this to her whenever she would get all worked up about something she thought someone would try to do to harm her. Yet, I'm guilty of worrying about next year's tomorrows. 

     I never worried about the next 24 hours. I'm terribly guilty about worrying about the tomorrows of years from now.  

    That is even crazier than worrying what will happen in forty-eight hours.  YHVH GOD has always come through for me in the past, and yet, I continue to picture the worse case scenario in my head of what the future may look like since the year my husband first threatened to divorce me after he moved out.  When each child left, and number 7 just moved out recently, I've dreaded the year 2027 like there is no tomorrow.  Pun not intended, well, maybe intended just a little.  I need to let go of tomorrow's tomorrow if I ever want to have any peace.  I hope if you fear tomorrow's tomorrow, you can find your peace in thinking the opposite of man, remember the past, and fear not tomorrow.