(From the book Eternal Sobriety, Chapter 9, God’s Will, page 195)
The expression “living one day at a time” is a principle direct from the teachings of Christ (see Matthew 6:34 below). We use this truth to stop drinking one day at a time. Long-term sobriety comes in little daily chunks. With sobriety, we further adapt this principle in other areas of our life. One of the most important things we learn to do in A.A. is to learn to live emotionally within the day as it unfolds.
It often takes experience and much struggling before we can accept the rightness of the “day at a time” principle. Any time we are out of the day, we are out of the reality of God. Being eternal (without time) means God is only available to us in the present. God designed us to be able to live with this truth to be in step with Him. In early sobriety, every day has its own pain. In early sobriety, a major part of that pain is residual from memories of past events and issues. The consequences of our drinking behavior are still fresh within us and around us. We are usually living in shameful guilt and scrambled thinking is the norm, at best. Learning to live in the day helps us hold back the past and its pain long enough to get some truth inside us. In early sobriety, our belief system is full of junk, so this ability to temporarily shut down our past is useful. This process is acceptable for early sobriety, but we will grow to recognize the value of our past. In time, when we do an inventory of ourselves, we will be able to face up to our past. God created us to have wonderful abilities – memory and imagination are among them. We can recall the past easily; an ability that is necessary for growth and repentance.
The other side of the time coin is our inability to look forward in to the future. Remarkably, Christ gave this truth to us back in the 1st Century in His Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6:34, He said: So, don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. When applied to our own life, His Words set us free from worries and fears over things that have not or may not ever happen. God did not feel we needed the ability to see the future when He created us. That has not stopped us from trying! We are indeed flawed. The fall of man warped all of man’s faculties – visualization and imagination included. Proverbs 27:1 gives us excellent advice with the added warning: Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.
Our past can be an emotional foundation for our growth since we can see it for what it was and the mistakes we have made. Often, in error and guilt, we tend to stay away from the past and selfishly project upon tomorrow, hoping it will bring good fortune. This is a problem for us all. We cannot know what the future may hold. There is no crystal ball telling us what might happen in our life tomorrow, either good or bad. Tomorrow may bring health or sickness, wealth or poverty, war or peace, emotional stability or confusion, and life or death. We need to realize that these uncertainties are entirely in the hands of God, as they should be! I am grateful to A.A. for the practical application of this principle. In the sobering up process, it became a reality, as I learned to not take a drink just for today. Never mind tomorrow! Projecting the outcomes of tomorrow leads to expectations, and expectations can lead to failure. This does not apply to setting goals or making proper plans. These are healthy things to do if they are in alignment with God’s Will. Scripture tells us the value of proper planning in which God orders the steps. Christ’s Words carry added meaning.
We need to take advantage of the simple twenty-four hours God gives to us each day. Today, we can travel closer to God or further from Him; we can seek His Will or choose to follow our own. We can passively wait for His Will or actively seek it in the manner He has instructed us to do. Reading, hearing, and living His Word on a daily basis will do this! The choice is ours. Today we have an earthly life – tomorrow that life may have ended unexpectedly. His Word answers and explains the preparation for that event, which will eventually happen.