Maybe you love your calendar. You love the sense of organization. Of priority. Of the feeling that you have your life ordered, sequenced, and planned. And you love that you can set alarms, based on your calendar, to remind you of particular times and dates you need to remember. If you’re an introvert, you love your calendar because a calendar appointment is a very convenient way to extricate yourself from a social situation you don’t want to be in. 

But then again, maybe you hate your calendar. In many ways, the calendar – especially when it’s full – is a reminder that time is your scarcest and most precious resource. That there is always something more to do; somewhere more to go. All those appointments can give you the sense of organization, but they also weigh you down with the burden of constant responsibilities.

But whether you love or hate your calendar, we can all agree on this: We need our calendars.

Martin Luther had a slightly different take on the use of the calendar, and on the Christian perspective on time, and it is in many ways a perspective that Peter seems to have shared. Luther once said, “There are two days in my calendar: This day and that Day.” What he meant by this day, is THIS day – the one we are in. The one the Lord has given to us with all its joys, pains, mundanity or excitement. This day, whether the first day of school or the first day of summer; this day whether the first day of a new job or the day of retirement. This day whether it’s the day of someone’s birth or the day of someone’s death. There is this day, and there is that day. THAT day is the day when Jesus will return. 

This day, and that day, are constant themes throughout the letters written by Peter. He writes about that day, over and over again, and he writes about the way we ought to live in this day in light of that coming day an equal number of times. So it should come as not surprise that in the closing to his second letter, we find him once again doing the same thing – reminding us that Christians live this day in light of that day:

“So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Peter 3:14).

To put it another way, live this day in light of that day.

Now to a lesser extent, we do this all the time. Our lives in the present – in the right now – are marked by the knowledge of another day that is coming. We might, for example, know that there is some kind of big meeting or presentation at work that will happen a month from now. And if we are wise, our behavior this day is influenced and dictated by that day that is coming. So we prepare the reports, we organize the information, and we prepare the initiatives.

Or, perhaps we know that some time in the future our family wants to go on a vacation together. Again, if we are wise, the knowledge of that day will influence the way we behave in this day as we save money, make restaurant reservations, and get all the stuff ready to go.

Or you might be in a season in which you have a child that is moving out and going to college. And you know, and have known, that day is on the calendar, but you don’t wait until that day to think about it or prepare for it. No, you make the most of time you have together. You try and teach and experience the things together that will be helpful to your son or daughter when they are on their own. You pour yourselves into him or her because you know that day is coming.

In all these examples, THAT day is not just something you wait for; it is something that is so significant that it actually influences the way you think, plan, and behave in THIS day. You might even go so far as to say that the true gravity of that day is measured by the behavior of this day. It is THAT day we are looking forward to, which Peter acknowledges in verse 14: “Since we are looking forward to this…” he writes.

But if we are looking forward to that day, the day of the new heaven and earth, the day when righteousness is real and justice is served, the day when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord – if we are looking forward to that day, then there ought to be something different about this day.

Which brings us to an important question, friends – when we look at our lives, is THIS day influenced at all by THAT day? If the answer is no, then perhaps we should ask ourselves just how real THAT coming day is to us at all.