OUR DAILY BREAD                             Monday, January 2, 1995
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Read: James 4:13-17


                         Will You Be Around?


                          Do not boast about
                              tomorrow,
                         for you do not know 
                           what a day may
                            bring forth.

                            Proverbs 27:1


I read the following account in a medical magazine: When the physical 
examination of a 78-year-old man had been completed, the doctor 
recommended that he come back in 6 months for another checkup. At this 
suggestion the aged patient shook his head and said, "Doctor, I don't 
think I'll be around then."

"Nonsense!" replied the physician with a reassuring smile. "You'll be 
around for years yet."

The elderly man gave him an odd look, then explained, "I mean that I'll 
be in Florida. I go there every January."

The story may cause us to smile, but the question it raises is very 
sobering. Will you and I be around tomorrow, next month, next year? It 
surely is sensible to make plans for the future, but we must always do 
so with an awareness of life's uncertainty.

As James reminded us in the Bible reading for today, life is "a vapor 
that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (James 4:14). 
Because of this we ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and 
do this or that" (James 4:15).

Will you be around in 6 months? Let this question prompt you to live 
faithfully for the Lord Jesus Christ today.

-- Richard W. De Haan



The present only is our own,
Live and toil with a will;
Do not wait until tomorrow,
For life's clock may then be still.

- McCartney


The Bible in one year: Genesis 3-5

Thought for the day: Settle all accounts today; you can't
                     bank on tomorrow



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