Unwritten

I was looking through one of my drawers the other day and came across a notebook; not one of the composition books you buy at the Dollar (+$0.25 now) store, but a really nice cowhide notebook that I had bought sometime in the past couple years from Local Church Bible Publishers. When I first got it, I had been planning on using it to take notes at church (as I had been since 2015), but the notebook I was using still had hundreds of pages left, so I put this new one away for a while. Then I pulled it out before the start of the new year, and decided to use it as a daily logbook of what I do, how I’m feeling, what I’m thinking, and so on; not like a “diary,” but more of a simple record of each day’s highlights and/or lowlights. The reason is that I wanted to be able to look back maybe once a week or so, as well as the end of each month, and definitely at the end of the year, and see for myself what 2023 was all about for me: what did I get done? Did I accomplish my goals? Was this the best year ever, or was it just another year? Where did I travel to? Who was important to me? What was important to me?

The notebook has over 365 blank pages; enough space to have one page assigned to each day, with some left over.

At the start of the year, I kept up with it for a few days, before missing a day or two, and having to catch up. Then at some point, I went about a week without writing anything in it, and had to catch up and try to remember the past seven or eight days.

For some days, I wrote down even mundane activities, like “Buckroe Beach,” even though I had probably stopped in for all of five minutes there on the way home from the real Beach, or “listened into Congress proceeding,” from back when the House of Representatives was electing a Speaker in early January.

Some of the pages—such as the one for Wednesday, February 8—had nothing written; for others such as January 1—New Year’s Day—I used both the front and back to record what I did and where I went and who I was with.

On February 15, I wrote that VCU’s basketball team had won on a buzzer-beater, and that I had gotten some closure on something that had been on my mind for a while (a good thing, that the LORD was showing me was now over). Sadly though, that was all overshadowed because that morning, I had found out that a dear friend had died very suddenly.

On February 21—my birthday—I wrote:
“Tire still not fixed; frustrated”
“Ready to take on Elite 4” (on Pokemon Platinum version, which by the way, is a great game)
“More ups and downs in previous year than I could count, but best year ever”
“Prayed for healing” (especially after the events of the previous week, but also just because of where I was at in mind and spirit)
“Had an amazing thought: one of these blank pages could be the page where I write the beginning of an incredible story.”

On February 23, I wrote that I had an online chat with a friend of mine from Illinois, and under that I also wrote “Challenge Accepted.”

For whatever reason, I never picked up and wrote in the notebook again. Much of whatever happened in the past five-plus months is now lost to history. But that’s OK.

Natasha Bedingfield sang, “Today is where your book begins; the rest is still unwritten,” and Fleetwood Mac sang, “Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.” There was a television commercial a while back, for a hockey equipment company called Bauer. It starts by showing an empty hockey arena, with a brand-new sheet of ice, and you hear a voiceover say: “If I give you a clean sheet, what will you write? Will your words be long and graceful, or short and sweet? Will it be poetry, or just plain English? If you have something to say, say it now, for soon, always too soon, my sheet will be filled, and this chapter will end, sure as the next one will begin, with a clean sheet; new authors, and a million possibilities.”

There’s a book being written in Heaven right now, a daily record of everyone’s life.

Last year sometime, a Brother from overseas visited and spoke at our church on a Sunday morning; he titled his talk, “The Pages of Our Life.” I wanted to share some notes from it:
Our life is like a book; we each have a “diary,” each page another day in our life (sometimes it’s boring). Some days/pages we wish never happened. But those pages do turn; God will see to it.
We break our vows to God on a regular basis, but we can pray to God for forgiveness and have full confidence that he will perform his vows to us.
Joseph turned the page from the worst of his life, to being second in command in all Egypt.
Esther, at a young age, was asked to bear the burden of Israel on her shoulders; no mention of God is made, no prayers, no angels, yet, just a few pages later, the trial is over.
Jesus’ most difficult moment: in the Garden, when he needed his three closest friends; he knew what was going to happen to him over the next 24 hours. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame; he saw us at the finish line and he is there cheering us on.
“It is finished:” every prophecy Jesus knew had to happen to him was checked off; next page, he was risen in glory.
By God’s grace, the last entry for all of us will be identical: “well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!”

Amen!

Every day when we wake up, the LORD turns another page and begins a new entry for each of us. What do you want yours to say? Let it be written, so let it be done.

Joy and gladness,

Dan