By Andrew Greenhalgh, Life Group leader, Jubilee Church Wirral

This is a picture of my mum and dad.

It was taken (I think) at some point in the early 90s. I’m guessing around 1994.

For those of you who don’t know, my dad died in 1998. He was only just 54 and there are a number of reasons for his life ending tragically early. I’m not going to go into them here.

I miss him a lot, and think about him most days. I think about how much he would have loved Julie and my children and how proud he would have been of my sister and me.

The thing is, though, when I think about my dad or dream about him (which happens frequently), I don’t feel sad. I feel joyous.

I feel joyous because when he was alive, we had a fantastic relationship. We would go to the pub together, talk about football and music and rarely, if ever, fall out. The only proper argument I can remember us having was over my decision to become a journalist and that was only because he knew how little journalists earned and didn’t want me to struggle for money in life!

My dad wasn’t perfect, and there are many things I do as a husband and father which are the polar opposite of what he did.

Where am I going with this? Why am I telling you all about my dad?

I was blessed to have a dad whom I got on brilliantly with, who was generous, funny and loving. I don’t have any regrets about making the most of my time with him when he was around.

No regrets.

And I think that’s my point, really. Living with regrets is not easy. We need to take every opportunity which God gives us and make the most of it. Tomorrow is too late – do it today.

James 4: 13-16 reads:
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

There are no guarantees about what’s going to be around the corner. We don’t know what God has in store for us. What we do know is that God is going to be with us the whole way, and if we try our best to make the most of what He gives us today, He will help us get through whatever tomorrow may bring.

Andrew Greenhalgh with his wife Julie