Encouraging Today

Hebrews 3:13, calls on all followers of Jesus to “…encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

When is it never “today?”

I remember my brother Bob, the youngest in our family, arguing with Dad over “tomorrow.” Bob had said he would do what Mom had asked “tomorrow.” Dad challenged him with, “But tomorrow never comes.” For five minutes – that was when Mom called a halt to the circular conversation – Dad would ask when is tomorrow to which Bob would say, “tomorrow” and Dad would say, “Then tomorrow will be today so you should do this today because today was tomorrow yesterday.” Obviously too much for a five year old to grasp in his very concrete world, but, Paul gives us another conundrum when he asks, “When is today not today?”

Today is always, today. We may have been encouraging yesterday, but, that is not today. We may plan to be encouraging tomorrow, but, we are called to be encouraging today. So when tomorrow becomes today, we will have been encouraging yesterday, which right now is today. I think I need an aspirin, and, a word of encouragement for someone in my life. Maybe that is why in 1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 Pail writes, “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

When we are encouraging because it is today, then we can say, “I am going to encourage you just as I have been encouraging you.” Ah, that sounds much better.