Why Do We Look Forward to Tomorrow?

I have been looking forward to today since January 2. This is the end of the official tax season. Long nights, weekends, early mornings are gone.

When March rolls around every year I question, “Why did I choose this profession? Why?” Do other professions have four months of nonstop work where you can’t catch a break? When working til 10 pm isn’t anything to brag about because when you leave and turn out the light you still have a lot more to be done.

But in those moments I count down to this day. I count down to a day when I can go home in daylight and have supper at a decent hour and enjoy the evening.

I don’t mean to complain, because I’m not alone. I feel like other people are like me. Always trying to outrun the avalanche behind them. Looking for that calm in the storm when you can just take a deep breath for a moment.

Sadly, we all live a life of waiting for tomorrows.

We are waiting for that relationship to come. We are waiting for that perfect job. We are waiting for that break to make a name for ourselves. We are waiting for that new drug to be approved. We are waiting for that next big thing.

But what if that tomorrow never comes?

What if your tomorrow is but another day to wait for that elusive tomorrow?

I heard a startling statistic the other day. 1 in 4 young adults have contemplated suicide during the COVID crisis.

1 in 4.

Look around you. Think of 4 young adults. Sadly, 1 of them pondered suicide.

Does that statistic sadden you? Does it make your heart sick? Does it make you want to go and tell someone they are special?

1 in 4 people is a lot of people.

After hearing that, I asked myself, why? Why such a depressing outlook on life? Why when life is so good.

But sadly, life is sometimes not good.

Sometimes you are hoping for a tomorrow to come, and you wonder if that tomorrow is ever going to come? You wonder as you look at a pill bottle. You wonder as you see a rope. You wonder what is the use when tomorrow seems to never come.

But life isn’t about knowing when your tomorrow is going to come. Life is about trusting that it will eventually come.

If you open the Bible and read anywhere through the scriptures you will find many stories of people waiting for a better tomorrow. You will find few stories of people living the best life.

You can say, well, look at Esther. She was queen. But she had a hard decision to stand up for her people and face the uncertainty of death or remain silent. She had to wait for that tomorrow.

You can say, look at the boy David who defeated Goliath and became King. But he didn’t become king immediately. He had to flee and run from King Saul who repeated tried to kill him. Many of the heart wrenching Psalms are from David crying out to God. He longed for that tomorrow.

You can say, look at Moses who led his people out of Egypt. But they were slaves for many years before and they wandered for 40 years after. They waited for that tomorrow.

You can find almost anyone in the Bible and I can point to you that they had to wait.

One of my favorite chapters is Hebrews 11 – The Hall of Fame of Faith. It goes through many people of the past and list this great acts of faith. Then at the end it starts rattling off many names and other nameless acts. But the most interesting statement comes at the very end.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Hebrews‬ ‭11:39-40‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did you catch that?

They were all commended for their faith, YET NONE OF THEN RECEIVED WHAT HAD BEEN PROMISED.

So is God some jokester wanting people to look forward to a better tomorrow only to never let them see it? No.

The things they were longing for was minor compared to what God has in store.

You may never see your tomorrow come, but God is still faithful.

You may never see your heartfelt prayer, but God has something much better for you.

You may never see that dream come to pass, but God still wants you to keep dreaming it.

God wants us to hope. To keep that hope in Him.

When we give up on tomorrow, we ultimately are giving up on Him. And He is bigger than all the tomorrows.

So, please, hold on for another tomorrow. And then another. And another.

Sometimes I wonder the reason we don’t get what we want is because God knows we would stop talking to Him about what we want. And God longs to listen to us. We are His greatest creation.

So, if your tomorrow seems bleak…it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. God already knows how it’s going to end. He just wants us to rest in Him and find comfort in Him and not the tomorrows we seek out.

If reaching your tomorrow causes you to stop needing God…well, I hope you never see that day. I hope you realize that God is better than all the end of tax seasons tomorrows.

I hope I will learn that one day too.

Peace

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