In our community group last week, one of our members made the honest confession: “When I was younger, I thought, ‘When I get into college, I’ll focus on my relationship with God.’ And then, ‘When I get out of school, I’ll get serious about my walk with God.’ And then, ‘When I get married —’ I was always looking toward some point in the future when I would finally get serious about God.”

Most of us can relate. It seems like life’s demands and our own plans and desires often get in the way of making our relationship with God a priority. If we’re not careful, knowing and doing God’s will can take a backseat to fulfilling our own. And that most elusive of days, called someday, continues to retreat before us, never allowing us to fully grasp the purpose and plan for which we were created.

Our lives were never meant to be about someday. And our faith was never meant to be put on hold. Jesus came to bring us abundant life, not just then and there, but here and now.

The author of Hebrews focuses on a different day instead:

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
— Hebrews 3:12-14

The writer paints a stark picture of why living a life of faith is so urgent and time-sensitive. Lack of faith in God can draw us away from him and harden us through sin’s deception. For this reason, the author encourages us to exhort (that is, to challenge and motivate) one another so that we can keep our eyes fixed on God and our faith firmly rooted in him. He reminds us to do this as long as it is called “today”.

The irony, of course, is that every day is today. No one ever lived a yesterday. Or a tomorrow. Or even a someday. Understanding the importance of today should shake us awake from the stupor of someday and call us to a deeper walk with him, starting now.

Are you ready for today? God is welcoming you to it. And he created you for it. He calls you to him with more grace and mercy than you can possibly fathom. He is ready and waiting. Are you?