Three's for your considerations

There are many things about faith that run in three’s. Faith, hope and love being three often quoted examples. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the three biggest foundational examples. Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego are my personal favorite of three’s. Here is one more example for good measure. Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. I have created a list of three’s in the Bible over the years and I’m sure you have some that you’ve considered and memorized from your studies in scripture too. Yesterday, today and forevermore are three more examples and are three very strong adverbs. Adverbs modify verbs and adverbs add distinction and significance. Merriam-Webster uses the word “indeclinable” in describing their use in grammar. In the 56th year of my numbered days of living, I wrote and recorded a collection of my daily thoughts in what I reference as the #56 Series. On day 166 of that year I wrote: “Whatever you hope tomorrow, it starts today”. This is another example of faith in three’s for me. Hope, tomorrow, today. “Whatever” is a pronoun that is a substitute for a noun. Whatever your aspiration are by name, whatever your dreaming, whatever you are thinking, whatever the goal you have set, whatever it maybe, it begins today! Procrastinating is delaying an action that is necessary or even required. Hope should never be delayed, hope should never be placed to the side or easily discarded. Hope is a foundational building block from which whatever can be built upon in faith. Whatever you hope, let that be our focus, let that be our energy and let that be our interest. Too often that which is most important is only addressed after all other failing efforts have been tried and exhausted. So what is your hope? Today is a really important moment and opportunity that we have. For this column, I am considering the word today to be much shorter that the 24 hours which defines a day in time. Today is the 2 minutes and 17 seconds that it took me to re-read this column, so I could write this sentence. What about your “today” 30 minutes ago before you took time to read this article? What about the 30 minutes of time that will follow after you have read my conclusion, until then? The way in which we see and observe time matters. Do we all wish for more hours in a day?…I know I have many times. We may never have all the time we need and our days are filled with many activities. For me, Bible reading, talking on the telephone, writing cards and notes, answering questions from people, listening to others tell stories, and reading newspapers is a part of my daily routine and I didn’t even mention eating, sleeping and driving. Three more three’s for me. Time is unique. Time matters to each of us differently and use of our time is observed differently too. I often hear people say “I am going to get up and leave here, I’ve got things to do today.” Truth is sitting could be a very valuable use of your time. Listening and taking in the scenery can also be a valuable use of time. Getting up and going is also valuable, I know this because I’ve had to tell myself to get moving before too. Whatever it is we are hoping for tomorrow, I am fully convinced it will require some due diligence and effort today. Tomorrow may not come for me or for you, but if it does arrive knocking at our door and we did nothing to prepare for it or nothing to aid our “whatever hope” then if that arrives without your effort, you can rest assured someone did the work for it to arrive. You just became the unexpected beneficiary of someone else’s labor. Don’t just think about tomorrow, get ready for it today. Until then