From the Home Place

September 15, 2025

Miss Deb and I enjoy getting together with friends and playing a card game we call “The Game.” I haven’t time to explain it here, but if you want to come over some evening, we will teach you how to play it. But in The Game, as with most other games, people have to take turns in play. Often when we are playing The Game with a large group, everyone will get to visiting, laughing and carrying on, 11+ and then someone will ask, “Who’s turn is it?” Meaning, that it is the next person’s turn to play.

Today marks the half-way of another month. This date, this time in creation, is a day that you and those around you shall never experience again. Chew on it, those who are alive today are the only people who will ever experience today. For sure, there are years before that none of us experienced, and there will probably be years after us that none of us will experience either . Now, do you have a sense of just how important today really is?

This is “the day which the Lord has made.” He has given you life yesterday and today, but there are no guarantees about tomorrow. With this day the Bible tells us to “rejoice and be glad.” (Psalm 118:24) Will we? To “rejoice” means to celebrate, literally to “shout in exultation.” – “Well this is just another day of work and struggle,” one might say. That same person could possibly continue, “With all of the pain and the uncertainty of this world, I see nothing to celebrate about.” Yet, if you knew this was your last day on earth, would you find something to celebrate about? I’ll bet that you would gather your family together and you would spend time celebrating each of them. You would celebrate that you were blessed to know them. Why wait?

The second unusual phrase describing this usual day is “be glad.” In another words, God wants us to be happy! To which our cynic would again quip, “What is there to be happy about? With the pain and suffering around me, the wars, the fires, floods and earthquakes, and with all of the hatred and confusion around me today, how can I be happy?” To which God responds, “Today is the day I have made for you, ‘rejoice and be glad!’”

The simple truth we are all aware of, but seldom live like we know it is this, “We all get only one life to live.” You live your life and then you pass your stuff on to another generation with this note attached, “Now, it’s your turn.”

I was born April 26, 1953. I have lived approximately 26,427 days, but today is intended by my Lord, to be a special day in my life because it is a day that He has given to me to “rejoice and be glad.” Every day of your life is a special day, because it is a gift from God, do we live like it? Do we live each day as one more opportunity to “celebrate” life with a good attitude and actions that tell the world around us that we serve an amazing God?

On January 8, 1956, Jim Elliot and four of his missionary friends were all murdered by the Alcha Indians of Ecuador. Jim had lived 28 years before his life on earth ended, but it ended. After Jim’s death, his wife Elisabeth Elliot took her turn, and once again attempted to reach the same people who had murdered her husband. By God’s amazing grace, these Indians accepted Elisabeth and many of them came to know Jesus as Savior!

Shortly before his death, James Elliot made this statement, “He is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose”. Jim was speaking of knowing Jesus as Savior and investing our lives for the cause of Christ. You see loved one, when we get to speak with others about the saving grace of Jesus, that is truly a day to “rejoice and be glad.”

Perhaps we have so many “ho, hum” days because we do not invest those days by serving our Savior in some way. No, I didn’t say that we are to live every day as another church day. Far from it! We are to live each day, even church days, as a special gift from God, so “rejoice and be glad.” A phone call, a note, a few minutes in conversation with someone who needs to hear your voice of hope – that is a day to celebrate! You see friends, it’s the people around us and the Holy Spirit working within and through us, that makes today a special day. For none of us know if there will even be a tomorrow.

So, may I suggest that you lay aside your agenda for today; ask God something like this, “Well Lord, what do You want us to do today?” Yield yourself to His leading, and see what comes about. But above all, “rejoice and be glad” that you get to see today to its end. Celebrate today, for “tomorrow has enough trouble of its own,” as Jesus said.

For somewhere in the future, often way too soon, our lives will draw to a close. And then at death’s door, we will whisper to the next generation, “Now, it’s your turn.” To which I say, “Why wait?” Let’s tell them that now. Today, take a moment to speak words of encouragement into the life of someone younger than yourself. Somewhere in the conversation, let them know that you have learned to “rejoice and be glad” with each day, “Now it’s their turn!”

Enjoying our turn with you, Neal