Why You Don’t Have to Fear the Future – Profundity from Winnie-the-Pooh

Profundity appears in unusual places, but this source didn’t catch me completely by surprise. As philosophers go, Winnie-the Pooh has long been known for wise-beyond-his-years serendipity. Disney’s latest version of Pooh’s adventures, a movie called, Christopher Robin, provides an ample supply of the short, fat, and proud-of-that bear’s snippets of wisdom. 
My well-loved copy from my childhood.
Here are some of my favorite lines from the movie: 

"I always get to where I'm going by walking away from where I've been." 

“Doing nothing often leads to the very best kind of something.” 

“There's always time for a smackeral of wonder.” 

But the quote that has reverberated in my heart since the last whispers of the movie finds its origin in Scripture. 

In one scene, an adult Christopher Robin awakens to discover he’s slept the night away. He’s late for a very important meeting. “Oh no!” he says. “It’s tomorrow.” Panicked, he rushes into a day filled with pressure, problems, and hopeless scenarios. A day devoid of joy and fun. 

Pooh remembers this exchange as the sun sets on the movie. “What day is today?” he asks. 

“It’s today,” Christopher Robin replies. 

“Oh, that’s my favorite day. Yesterday, when it was tomorrow, it was much too much day for me.” 

I have often felt Pooh’s angst. Standing on the precipice of Today peering through the thin veil into Tomorrow, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by what the future might hold. Cold fear clutches my heart. Will my resources be enough to handle what comes my way? 

Will my marriage go the distance? 

Will our money be enough to pay the bills? 

Will my children love God? 

Will my body be ravaged by some cruel disease? 

Will my retirement account last through my old age? 

Like Pooh, tomorrow is much too much day for me. 

Thankfully, Jesus knows the frailties of our hearts. This is why he cautioned, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Mat. 6:34). 

Don’t peer into the veil, he warns. One day’s challenges are enough. 

Isaiah, in the book of Lamentations, tells us why each day must stand on its own. 




“(God’s) mercies never end. They are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23).

Like the manna he supplied to the Israelites every day, God’s supply is inexhaustible – but the quantities are limited. Today’s mercies are only enough to feed Today’s growling stomach. There are no leftovers to vacuum seal and set aside. Tomorrow’s mercies remain safely stored in the warehouse of God’s supply until the new day arrives, and we cannot raid the stash. 

Yet we want to. Oh, how we want to. 

We want to stockpile a lifetime’s supply of mercy so we’ll only have to ask once. We long to shed our mantle of fear and uncertainty forever. We want to walk into our future with our mercy cloaks wrapped tightly about us, impervious to the fiery darts of our uncertain futures – the same darts that drive us to seek shelter in the shadow of the Almighty. 

But it doesn’t work that way. “Yesterday’s mercies are for yesterday’s burdens,” John Piper said, and it’s true. Today’s mercy check is payable to the bearer on demand, but it can’t be post-dated. 

Every day God invites us to sit at his feet and obtain all the mercy we need – but only for that day’s challenges. 

“Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence,” the writer of Hebrews says, “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” 

This daily portion of grace and mercy tethers us to his side, where we are safe, instead of releasing us to the dangers of spiritual independence. 

God knows our hearts. He knows we’d jerk the coat of adequacy off the rack, shove our arms into its sleeves, and march off into the future with nary a backward glance. Clothed in our self-sufficiency, we’d have no reason to sit at his feet, learn from him, and allow him to work through us. We’d have no need for a relationship with him if he provided all we needed to live without him. 

Knowing our willful bent toward independence, God tethers us to himself by his grace. There we experience the freedom of knowing he’ll provide everything we need, exactly when we need it. 

What a gift. 

If you feel overwhelmed and frightened by the what ifs of the future, take heart. If you can’t bear the thought of tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, rest easy. As Pooh so wisely observed, tomorrow is much too much day for you. 

But today isn’t. Today you have God’s mercies – and they are new every day, abundantly sufficient for everything you will encounter. 

Today is all you have to face. And God’s mercies are already here.



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