Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

Proverbs‬ ‭27‬:‭1‬

This business of one day at a time is a pretty big deal.

It’s quoted often enough that it’s both bouncing off the walls of recovery as well as in danger of being discarded from sheer repetition.

But its importance is undeniable. Practically, it’s a habit, a way of living that we can bring to each moment once we get started.

But it’s a skill that isn’t well ingrained at the beginning. We are used to instant gratification, and this does translate somewhat into the idea of staying present in what’s right in front of us.

But it breaks down when we have to persevere.

The lie of addiction is that we can continue always receiving satisfaction and pleasure at no cost. For a long time, this is what we are after. And one moment at a time we go get it.

To arrest that way of life and replace it with the steady rhythms of grace is good. But it feels boring and dull and without the self-serving pleasures that we are accustomed to.

We think we need fulfillment and pleasure and the satisfaction that comes from another fix. But what we are really after, at the root of all of that, is joy.

Don’t all the positive experiences we have had point back to joy in some way or another?

And doesn’t addiction exist because we’ve never been able to grab on to joy and take it with us from one day to the next?

This is why sobriety and salvation outweigh our past lives. Because as we do live one day at a time trying to mirror His will for us, we tap into an infinite pool of joy.

It’s vast. But we can only touch it a moment at a time. And as soon as we try to hoard it, it’s gone.

Joy is like God’s will—it works on us when we are sharing it with others. We become recipients of it when we become vessels for Him.

God, let me experience real joy, and let me always move toward it.