Seizure: The Day

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
- James 4:13-14a, 15 (NIV)

Friday morning, August 6th started out like any other day: Get up, get my coffee, do some things around the house and fly out the door at 6:50 a.m. getting into work by the skin of my teeth and timing in at 7:27 a.m. (I’m supposed to be at my station at 7:30)! Where I work, there is a reception planned each month for those employees whose anniversaries or “start date” is in that particular month. It gives a chance for the management to show their appreciation to those who have worked there a while as well as recognize employees with mile-stone anniversaries: five years, ten years, fifteen years, etc. It’s not a big deal but there’s usually donuts, pastries, juice and most importantly…coffee. Employees are asked to R.S.V.P. to insure that there will be enough for everyone. The reception was planned for Tuesday, August 10th.

I remember calling H.R. sometime the morning of August 6th and telling them that I would be there. As I said the words: “I’ll be there”, I felt a catch in my spirit, a voice in my head, telling me that I would not be there. I didn’t know why I wouldn’t be there. I didn’t know if there was an appointment I had forgotten about, one of the kids would be sick, or what. I just know that I heard a voice saying to me the words: “You will not be there”. And I wasn’t either. I suffered a seizure the next morning.

The day of the reception I could barely get out of bed and was in no shape to go to work much less attend a reception. The point of my story is this: It’s okay to make plans. But know that God can change those plans at any moment. I had planned to be at that reception. I had no clue that the next morning I would find myself waking up in the emergency room! We don’t know what will happen the next day.
We don’t even know what will happen today! All you have to do is watch the news to know that is true. I close with an old hymns chorus: "I Know Who Holds Tomorrow"


“Many things about tomorrow,
I don’t seem to understand.
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand”


* “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow”
Ira F. Stanphill (1950)