By A. Ray Lee

Columnist

I rose early one morning last week after a restless night and slipped outside to escape the temperature which had risen uncomfortably high within the house. After struggling against the prolonged oppressive heat wave my air conditioner had lost its cool. I tried to rest in the promise of a new day dawning around me lest I lose mine while wondering how long it would be before an overworked repair man could come to my rescue. Many others sweating out the same problem were probably ahead of me on the service call lists.

Weather prognosticators were promising that numerous days to follow would be much the same as those of the past two weeks featuring bright sunshine beaming down out of a cloudless sky. Even in my discomfort, I had sympathy for the announcers who did not create the forecast but did their best to make it palatable. They only repeated what others had predicted and by now had surely memorized the script and could recite it without glancing at a prompter. Could they be remembering scenes from the movie “Ground Hog Day” where each morning started out the same as the previous one?

As I looked out over fields where cotton once grew thoughts came to mind of the hot days spent on the farm. There was no air conditioning then other than that which was provided by nature. Days in the cotton fields were sweltering under the summer sun. The heat continued into the night making sleep difficult. Eventually, we had an exhaust fan in a window that drew in enough outside air to cool the temperature inside the house.

As the heat of the day began to build, with little confidence, I called an air conditioning repair man. Who because he had recently done a major project for me, changed his schedule and within two hours my house was well on its way to becoming comfortable again.

If you have been reading my columns you know that I have confidence in the power of faith.

Faith in the providence of God determines the way you face a day that does not seem to have a promising beginning. Some may face it with a feeling of trepidation and a cynical attitude hoping it will not be a rerun of yesterday or a precursor of tomorrow. Each new day has its own troubles and challenges. We do not have to let those of yesterday dominate our thinking. We do not have to worry about what tomorrow may hold for we do not face it alone.

In the book of Lamentations we find the assertion that the “mercies of the Lord are new every morning.” And Jesus said, “take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for things of itself.”

This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.