FIRST GLIMPSE

Frustrating Friday

It started early one Friday morning. As I leaned back in my office chair and took a first satisfying sip of strong, black coffee, I glanced down and froze. Brown shoes, gray pants, black belt, plaid blue shirt, and orange striped tie—I looked like a high schooler ready for Tacky Day. Pretty bad, even for a guy who struggles with colors.

As I tried to shake off the obvious wardrobe malfunction, a coworker stuck his head in the door and asked, “Are you ready for your trip?” I shot him a blank look. “What trip?”

The rest of the morning was lost in a flurry of last-second travel plans and “let them know I’m coming” calls. Perhaps that is why I missed the urgent voicemail from my wife. When I finally returned her call, I learned that our recently repaired roof had sprouted a leak. Water was streaming into the entryway of our home.

Rain! Muttering a quick apology, I hung up the phone and dashed to my car to roll up the windows. Not that it mattered. Puddles already stood in the floorboards, and my seats were soaked through.

I sloshed my way back into the office wondering, “What else could go wrong?”

That’s when I found a Fed-Ex package waiting in my chair—waiting with freshly printed copies of ONE Magazine. For several moments, I simply stood and held the box in my hands. Should I open it on such a frustrating Friday? What would I find inside? Would the headline be misspelled or the cover printed upside down? Holding my breath, I slid a letter opener through the packing tape.

It was beautiful. With the exception of a couple of small typos, I found nothing that would distract from the important messages within. I breathed a deep sigh of relief.

As I recounted my misfortunes to my family later that afternoon, we shared a good laugh. Then my daughter said something I will never forget. “Dad, aren’t you glad that tomorrow is another day?”

You know, I really am.

Perhaps that is what the prophet Jeremiah had in mind when he laid aside his weeping to pen the following words. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.”

I relish the thought of a new day, a new issue, a new year—a new beginning. As we find ourselves on the brink of 2011, I challenge you to cling to Jeremiah’s promise. Forget the failures of the past. Embrace the promise of the future, and revel in the opportunities and challenges of the coming year.

With that in mind, I am going to ask my wife to help me pick out some matching clothes for tomorrow.

About the Writer: Eric Thomsen is managing editor of ONE Magazine. Send comments and observations about ONE to editor@nafwb.org.