Better Than Yesterday

I’ve come to believe there are no new theories or wise sayings out there. They have all been discovered and they have all been said or written or sung or preached or taught or imparted. What is new is where YOU and I are in a single moment in time when we are, for just the briefest of instances, perfectly ready to receive it.

There are all sorts of reasons we are in that moment in time. Factors that all flow together like small streams joining to form a river. The tendrils of thoughts, emotions, events, responses, passions and fears all snake together to form that single moment when we are ready to receive something that’s been around since the dawn of creation and in that moment, it feels like something brand new. In that moment the greatest blessing of being human that was gifted to us by our Creator is there before us, like a great fork in the road, the gift of choice. The freedom to choose to take what has been presented to us in that moment and internalize it or to move away and pass it by.

Yes, if you might have noticed I have had many of those moments in time. I share them not to tell people how great I am or to get sympathy, but in the prayer that someone else, maybe even just one or two, are in that moment of time and that they have had their own tendrils come together and their lives are enriched.

Here’s the newest one for me. Being “better than yesterday”, is not a new thought. It is, however, one of the core values of the company I am working for. I not only hear it, I say it every day and often multiple times a day. At first, I felt like I sounded like a self-improvement book. I felt silly. Over the course of the last several months I have started to feel less silly and more sure of its importance. Again, let’s be clear, this is not a new concept.

Over the last couple days those tendrils of streams flowed down to the point they all met in the river and in that moment I chose to accept what felt so new, what felt so different, what, in this moment of time, I understand. I have made some major changes in my life that have led to some extraordinarily painful things and also some wildly incredible blessings. Big changes, being sober, changing jobs, relocating and separation.

Those are some pretty huge changes. But through all those huge changes the spotlight has lit up those areas in my life that are smaller. The ripple effect of those huge changes leave many, many, small things that need to be improved. Those smaller things are the “better than yesterday” things.

Lately the screws have been tightening on my day to day world. The focus has been less broad and more narrow and when the focus narrows the “eyes” of our soul are able to focus on and find those smaller things. The “better than yesterday” things. Here’s an example: My dog, Ajax, has been unsettled in this relocation and for understandable reasons. I need to get him out on more walks so he can get used to his world around him just like I am trying to get used to it myself. Get his bearings so to speak. I slept poorly last night so I was in bed later than I wanted. When I woke up I chose to pick up my phone, knowing I had less time than ideal before work. I picked it up and got lost on social media. Not for a super long time, but just enough that I now had even less time before work. Because of where I am in life I can’t afford to skip what I call my “morning things” that keep me centered (reading the Bible, journaling, worshiping a little etc).

Since I couldn’t skip those things for fear of falling over the edge and not being able to come back, I had to skip the planned walk for poor Ajax. In order to keep myself healthy, he suffered because I was scrolling social media when I woke up and not focused on mine and his needs. Social media was not one of my needs and definitely not one of his. My “better than yesterday” will be tomorrow. I will not pick up my phone and scroll. I will wake, focus on my needs and then focus on Ajax’s needs. I will be better than yesterday tomorrow.

So I ask just one simple question, what is YOUR better than yesterday? When those tendrils meet at that river, as mine has, I pray you remember this and in that single moment in time you choose to be better than yesterday as if the thought is brand new. And I pray that we all live this one life we have been blessed with striving everyday to be better than yesterday.

And with that, I will take another 24