Run in such a way as to win the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

I was in a production of My Fair Lady in high school. My role was small; I think I was credited as the third cockney on the left. But didn’t someone say somewhere that there are no small roles?

Regardless, our school was entered in a state-wide drama competition. First prize included the chance to perform in a professional playhouse. The judges were scheduled to come to the Saturday night performance, but for some reason they showed up on Thursday, the night of our dress rehearsal.

Shortly before the performance, our director explained the mixup to the cast and crew: “This is not just a run-through. Tonight counts. Give your best performance.”

This changed the atmosphere backstage. Getting everything right — every line, every cue, every entrance and exit — was now more important than ever. The judges were in the audience. This was no dress rehearsal. It was the real thing.

You know what? The life you’re living today is the real thing. Sometimes we live as if this is all a run-through, as if we’ll have another shot at it someday.

This is it. Life is now. There is no dress rehearsal. Today counts.

By the way, we won the competition that year.

He said, “I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.”

Repeat this before an audience and you’ll see many heads nod in agreement. It has the ring of good common sense.

Be careful, though. This axiom might be true when applied to politics or history or investing, but it provides a lousy foundation for developing relationships. And it certainly doesn’t reflect the way God relates to us.

God gives a chance to let go of the past and start over — each and every day. Jeremiah wrote, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

God doesn’t judge our future by our past. He didn’t do it with David or Moses or Peter or Paul or countless other Bible characters. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. [Psalm 103:10] Every day is a new day.

A good way to start the day with God is to remember that you’ve just been given brand new mercies — the chance to start the day with a clean slate.

It’s also a good way to start the day with others. God doesn’t all our past to prevent us from a having a great future, so let’s give the same gift to others.

In the movie Ground Hog Day, Bill Murray plays a self-absorbed, cynical weatherman who gets stuck with going to Puxatawnie Pennsylvania on February 2 for the big Ground Hog Day celebration, a task he dreads. Worst of all, he wakes up the next day only to find that it’s not the next day — it’s February 2 again. He has to relive the day again and again and again.

Eventually he gets the day perfect:  he saves a homeless man from freezing, he saves another man from choking in a restaurant, he catches a little boy who falls out of a tree, he changes a flat for some elderly women, and so on. In other words, he spends the day serving people.

Today is Ground Hog Day, and I’m guessing that all of us will only get one shot at it — just like we get just one shot at every other day. We have one chance to get today right; let’s make the most of this opportunity. Let’s spend the day serving others.

As the writer of Hebrews said, “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13) 

“The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us.”

So let’s make it our first job each day — throughout the entire year — to listen to the quieter voice, and letting Christ lead us into his presence, 24 hours at a time.

It’s easy to see today all the trees we failed to plant twenty years ago. And it may be tempting to dwell on those good things left undone. God, however, has forgotten them; those sins of omission have been cast into the same sea of forgetfulness as our other sins.

Instead, we must be about the business of planting trees today. Paul said, “Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) Yesterday will never be any different than it was, but the pages of now are still blank. Today is the day of salvation; today is the day to start planting trees.