MACK WILBERG
Conductor
RICHARD ELLIOTT
Organist
DERRICK PORTER
The Spoken Word
IN HYMNS OF PRAISE
Music: Alfred Beirly
Text: Ada Blenkhorn
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL
Music: John Rutter
Text: Cecil Frances Alexander
EVERY TIME I FEEL THE SPIRIT (ORGAN SOLO)
Music: African American spiritual
Arrangement: Richard Elliott
HOMEWARD BOUND
Music and Text: Marta Keen Thompson
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
O SPLENDOR OF GOD’S GLORY BRIGHT
Music: German hymn tune
Text: St. Ambrose; trans. Louis F. Benson
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
THE SPOKEN WORD
“These Are Good Days”
WE THANK THEE, LORD, FOR THIS NEW DAY
Music: Mack Wilberg
Text: David Warner
HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION
Music: J. Ellis
Text: attr. Robert Keen
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
The Spoken Word
These Are Good Days
By: Derrick Porter
These Are Good Days
The Spoken Word, January 5, 2025
Derrick Porter
A new year is here—a time for new beginnings, new goals, and new dreams, a time when we look forward to the future and consider what we want to accomplish and what we hope might come true.
Since I was a child, I can recall regularly looking forward to the future—always thinking of and anticipating the next exciting event in my life. Some of these events included getting a driver’s license, graduating from school, getting married, starting a career, and having children. Certainly these were events worth looking forward to.
As I’ve now grown older, I find myself wishing that time could slow down. I’m even old enough now to at times have remembered a past event and said to myself, “Those were the good old days!” But a somewhat recent thought has stuck with me: “These days are the good old days of tomorrow!”
At first, that concept felt a bit strange, but as I’ve continued to think about it, I really feel it’s true. The very days we are in—days that are busy, days that are challenging, even days that aren’t perfect, and most aren’t—these days are the good old days of tomorrow. These are the days with rich moments that we will look back on and yearn to relive. These are the days that in the future we will recall with fondness, days when we were growing and being stretched, days when we were learning and experiencing, days when we were making the memories of a lifetime.
Looking forward to the future is necessary and important. Reflecting on the past can offer perspective and growth. But living in the present allows us to enjoy in real time events and experiences that will become the good old days of tomorrow. Living in the present ensures that we do not defer until tomorrow the joy we might treasure up today.
Yes, we’re making the good old days of tomorrow, hour by hour and day by day! So as we look forward to another year and as we remember the many good years of the past, may we set a new resolution: to live fully in the present, today.