This week I am attending a writing retreat called ReFocus 2022. It was something I really needed. Badly. Many of you may be thinking that I have been flying off the radar for some time now as evidenced by the lack of any new content on my blog or website in what feels like ages. In truth, I haven’t been flying at all. In truth, I have been within a whisker of giving up writing altogether – a legacy of the brain fog and depression associated with my cancer journey. However, it seems God is not done with me yet, as a writer that is. I have experienced some significant improvement in my ability to concentrate over the past month and here I am, at the keyboard once again.
I recently watched the movie, City Slickers, or should I say
re-watched it. It’s an old movie, a comedy where three friends from the city take
a working holiday on a cattle ranch. It’s hilariously funny but has some
profound lessons in it as well. In one scene each of them is asked to recount
their best and worst days. One of them describes a horrible day that leaves
everyone listening stunned at how bad it was. When they want to know what his
best day was, he simply answers that it was the same day. Now there’s a thought
worth thinking about.
One of the devotional messages here at the retreat included
the story of a man who, when he turned 50, declared with confidence that the
coming decade would be the best of his life, and it was. When he turned 60, he
said the same thing, and it turned out that it was. I thought, why not carry
that into every area of my life. I determined then and there that this would be
the best week of my life. Not only that, I decided to set out each morning
declaring that today would be the best day of my life. A friend once told me
that attitude determines altitude and that stuck with me. If I want to fly, I
need to change my attitude, press the “reset” button on the way I’m doing life.
This seemed a good way to start.
Of course, the only way you can say that sort of thing with
any confidence is if you understand that every single day has the potential to
be the best one of your life when God is in it, no matter what it might hold. I
made a choice many years ago to give my life to God and receive His in return.
That means He is present in every one of my days. That’s His promise and my
reality though I often tend to forget it.
So, what about those days when everything goes wrong, bad
things happen, or I mess up somehow? Let’s face it, not every day is sunshine
and roses. How can I look back at the end of it and call it the best day of my
life? How can anybody? The big question is, did I meet God there? Did I
remember that He is always present? Did I let His love (which is bigger than
any problem by the way) fill me, sustain me, strengthen me, comfort me? That’s
what love does. Knowing that He loves me, and experiencing it in my darkest
moments, is what can make my worst day also my best day.
Moments like that transform us. They are the birthplace of
the confidence and peace that should be the mark of every believer’s life. That’s
the hope that we can offer to the world. His promise can become anyone’s
reality and every single day has the potential to be the best day of our lives.
Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
