“The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today” (Isaiah 38:19).

Today you will take about 23,040 breaths, and you don’t even have to think about it. You can hold your breath if you need to and catch your breath after climbing a hill. But today you will breathe.

Today your heart should beat about 115,200 times, give or take. If it is way off, you need to see your doctor. It will beat faster when you exercise and slower when you rest. But today your heart will beat.

Today you might stumble upon an opportunity or achieve something you always wanted to achieve, like getting in better shape so your heart keeps beating and you keep breathing.

Today is God’s gift to you. It is wrapped in 1,440 minutes that add up but don’t carry over to tomorrow. But, what you do with them today will.

If you live to be 80, you will have had 29,200 todays. That’s a lot of breaths and a lot of heartbeats. And it is probably a lot of illnesses and recoveries, a lot of sadness and joy. It is seeing some things more than once and seeing some things for the first time. That’s a full life.

Today you can shout, “Hallelujah!” Or you can whisper it if you don’t want to wake a baby or a grandma from a nap. You can praise God for what he is doing today and what he did for you each day before this one. 

Today you are living for a reason.