As many of you know I am a huge fan of the Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther. I have his 95 Theses on my office wall. I have a coffee mug the kids gave me with a quote from Luther on it. I even have a Martin Luther action figure on one of my shelves. So, yeah, I’m sort of obsessed with the German theologian.

But what kind of outlook did this man have? His life was one that was thrown into turmoil when he began to stand up for the truth of God’s Word. He was thrown out of the church (and by extension, condemned to hell) for his preaching. At the hearing where he refused to back down from his assertions about Scripture, the soldiers “guarding” him yelled “To the flames,” meaning they were ready to burn him at the stake. If it hadn’t been for some loyal friends who staged his “kidnapping” and later hid him away from the church authorities, he would have been executed.  After years of being on the run – constantly having to stand up for the truth he proclaimed, he finally had a few years of peace in his later life – only to be ravaged by physical ailments which made him bedridden at times.

So, with all of this upheaval and strife in his life, how did Luther view his life? How did he get from one day to the next? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Luther wrote, “There are two days in my calendar. This day and that Day.” To him, this “mortal life” was lived one day at a time. The “this day” on his calendar meant that he lived each day unto itself. He didn’t worry about the future, especially since there was no guarantee that he would live another day in this life. Past today the only day he was concerned with was “that Day.” Notice the capitalization of “that Day”? That “Day” was THE DAY. The Day when he would meet Christ. The Day that would be an Eternal Day. Paul told Timothy – “But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until THAT DAY what has been entrusted to me.” (2 Tim. 1:12)

So I leave you with this – what about us? How many days are on our calendar? Does the fear of future days cripple us in living this day? Are we living each day here in light of the fact that “That Day” is coming? Are we doing all that we can here and now to be ready for “That Day”? Is our focus on temporary things or eternal things?