That Day Will Come

Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed! Revelation 16:15

I’m always working on eating healthy, but I’m also always not that far away from struggling and failing. I’ve been doing pretty well lately, down a few pounds. Then I had a melancholy day at work recently. There was nothing wrong. I was just a little tired and blah. It’s the kind of day that I would have once used as an excuse to use. That didn’t even cross my mind, but there was a lot of junk food at work and so, I turned to food as my relief. I ate my way through the day, finding some temporary relief but also making me feel worse in the end. I dealt with my angst by turning to immediate gratification, which as usual, was self-destructive.

The consequences of a pizza relapse aren’t the same as a drug relapse, but there’s still a lesson there. I often meet those who’ve had 10 or 12 years of sobriety, only to relapse. It’s always a little frightening for me, so I must ask. What happened? Why did you go back? The answer usually involves some difficult life event that occurred during a time when the individual wasn’t working at recovery. I wasn’t going to meetings or doing my daily readings, when my father passed away. In my grief, I turned to the bottle. My sobriety was fine while life remained stable, but when my world turned upside down, I relapsed.

This always worries me a little because I know that day is coming for all of us. If my life is relatively calm now, it won’t always be that way. Bad things will happen to me and to my loved ones. How will I respond when the trial comes? Will I return to the old comfort of the pills, thereby multiplying my life problems? Or will I choose to deal with my stress in a healthy manner? The answer I think, lies in what I’m doing right now. Am I daily working on my faith and recovery, pursing God’s will instead of my own? Do I find my joy and peace in him? Or am I just adrift, waiting to be swamped by the approaching tidal wave of life?

Today’s passage reminds us that our day will come. Things won’t always remain as they are. What will our response be? Will our faith be exposed as hypocrisy on that day? Or will we stand strong, following God’s will instead of our own? The difference lies in where I’m choosing to find my joy, purpose, and meaning now. Today is preparation for that coming day.