Same But Different

On my walk this day, the Lord began to speak to me about this day being a new day. He showed me that I’ve never been here before—in this time. Today is yesterdays future, today is tomorrow’s past. I can go through this day with my eyes closed thinking I already know what this day will be like with the same scenery, the same address, the same walk in the park, I’m the same person…same, same, same.

The Lord then reminded me of my Trail Riding days and how I could sit back and enjoy the scenery because the lead person knew the trail like the back of his hand. All I had to do was just relax and see the newness of the trail that I had never been down before. I was the same, my horse and saddle were the same, even my friends were the same, but I had never been down this trail before and I didn’t want to miss a thing!

We can get into a routine so easily that we are actually oblivious to change. We sleep walk through our days thinking we know, we’ve been there, done that—because it’s familiar to us. The thing is, it’s not supposed to be completely familiar—there are subtle little changes as well as big changes. God is into the small things in our lives as well as the the obvious big things and the suddenlies.

As I sat on the park bench, the Lord began to show me how each blade of grass and every leaf on the tree will be different tomorrow than they are right now in this moment. When you watch a cloud or a sunset, you see subtle little changes in each moment. I took 40 pictures of the same sunset one evening and every picture was different. It was moving into the future so slowly, that most people would miss the changes that took place in each moment. They say time stands still, and it does—but it only lasts for a fraction of a moment and then it’s gone.

One thing we know, we’ve never been here before—maybe in the place but definitely not in the time. And we’ll never be here again. Many call it the ‘now’, but I like to see it as ‘hope’, which is forward movement. We also know by experience that nothing stays the same, everything and every moment is temporary.

God is the only One who does not change. He spoke to me about the fact that even though it’s a new day, with my changing mindset or mood that I might have had yesterday, His love and plans for me have not changed. He is always ON for me—the same today, yesterday and forever. God is not the one who is changing. We aren’t supposed to conjure up the feelings that He loves us and is pleased with us over and over every day. Our identity in Christ should become more obvious to us every day. Proverbs 4:18 says that the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. You could also say that our faith is changing us into becoming brighter and brighter. When we read this, it imparts hope to us—forward movement—that things will get brighter, better, fuller, with more understanding and wisdom. If you don’t believe this word is true, then you are asleep. So many of us sleep walk through our days.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “…old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. The Greek word for ‘new’ is kainos, meaning; recent, recently made, recently fresh, unused, unworn. Today is a new day, one we’ve never experienced before. It’s fresh, recently made, and unused, just like fresh baked cookies from the oven—get ‘em while they’re hot because tomorrow they won’t be fresh like they are right now. With each passing moment they’ll get stale and old, ready to pass away. This is just like each new day. God wants us to enjoy our lives…today! What we miss today, will be gone tomorrow.

Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” I would say this every single day of my life. One day when I wasn’t feeling so glad about my day, God spoke to me very strongly and said, “I want you to ENJOY your life!” I replied, “Uh, okay, just how do I do that again? I can’t seem to remember how!” With that reply, the Lord said to take this same scripture I had been saying every day and change the word ‘day’ to ‘life’, and the word ‘we’ to ‘I’. Now I say this every day: “This is the life the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!” I said it enough that I now believe it! God made my life, God made your life—this is the life He has made! I choose to rejoice and be glad in it! The gladness and joy that comes by renewing my mind and believing is not only incredible, it’s infectious!

Getting back to trail riding, the Lord reminded me of the time we rode our horses the opposite way. We entered the trail where we usually come out. Going our usual direction, the horses would trod along, not pay much attention to the trail, almost like they were bored. But when we rode that same trail the other way, our horse’s ears were perked up, they were paying attention to every little thing like it was a completely new trail. The difference was the perspective they had by going a different way on the same trail. We need to get a different perspective as we go along in our routine (same trail). A routine is usually always boring. The key is to change it up a bit by getting a different perspective. Ask God to show us something new. It will take all of eternity to truly discover all of who God is—especially His goodness. Why not just ask Him to start us on that journey right now? It’s called ‘today’, and when today is over, we will have a new ‘today’ to discover the goodness, the revelation, wisdom, understanding, and the mysteries that God has for us.

Show me, Lord—I don’t want to miss a thing!