Live in day-tight compartments (1) - All The Word for Today Daily Devotionals for 2026

Matthew 6:34 TLB

Sir William Osler was the most famous physician of his generation. He organised the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and served as a professor of medicine at Oxford University. Considered the father of psychosomatic medicine, his textbook, The Principles and Practice of Medicine, was the principal reference book for medical students for three decades. But Osler's medical career almost ended as soon as it started because of a nervous breakdown. He was trying to finish his academic requirements, start a medical practice, and make ends meet - all at the same time. It nearly killed him.

Then he came across something that Thomas Carlyle wrote: 'Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.' Those words revolutionised Osler's life. In a commencement address at Yale University, Osler told the students he owed his success to a simple principle: living in day-tight compartments. He told them that they needed to let go of dead yesterdays and unborn tomorrows. 'The load of tomorrow,' he said, 'added to that of yesterday, carried today, makes the strongest falter.'

David said: 'This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it' (Psalm 118:24 TLB). Jesus said: 'Don't worry at all about having enough food and clothing... your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them, and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to. So don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time' (Matthew 6:31-34 TLB).

Soul food: Exo 30-32; John 4:39-54; Ps 32; Pro 27:1-3