You Can't Save Everything

Have you ever made a trip to the inside of a huge power dam? It is quite a sight to see those great electric generators whirling away sending out electricity for hundreds of miles to great cities. It even makes you proud to be a part of the human race who thought up and built such wonderful things.

Those generators whirr away day and night making electricity to light our homes, cook our food, freeze our ice, and run countless machines. And the strange thing about it all is that every spark of electricity is used up the instant it is generated. It cannot be stored up for future use. Every time we flick on a light switch, or one of the motors in our many appliances starts up, the electricity is created at the power dam.

When Moses was leading the Children of Israel across the desert God sent them manna to eat. (Read Exodus 16.) Some people got tired gathering it up every day, and so they would take up two days' supply at once. But the manna spoiled and became wormy if kept more than one day. It was meant to be used the day it was sent.

Good deeds are like electricity and manna. They can't be stored up like money in the bank. Once a deed is done it is done. The good turn you did yesterday was just fine yesterday, but today calls for today's good deed and tomorrow tomorrow's. You can't say your prayers twice tonight so that you can miss tomorrow night.

Your good-deed generator must work day and night because it does not store up good deeds for the future. Once you start doing good you will never be excused from work. You cannot ride tomorrow on the things you do today. In God's world it is always today.

Give me the strength, dear God, to keep going.