No one is quite sure where this “100 days” marker actually originated. But it obviously rules the political world inside the beltway of our nation’s capital. 

Some say it stretches back to Napoleon: “The 100-days concept is believed to have its roots in France, where the concept of 'Cent Jours' (Hundred Days) refers to the period of 1815 between Napoleon Bonaparte’s return to Paris from exile on the island of Elba and his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, after which King Louis XVIII regained the French throne” (www.history.com/news/fast-facts-on-the-first-100-days).

Most link the “100 days” packet of time to the opening months of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency: “[He] was the first president to use the phrase 'first 100 days’, in a radio address on July 24th, 1933. He had taken office around five months earlier. America was then in its fourth year of a depression” (www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/01/24/why-an-american-presidents-first-100-days-matter). 

But as it turned out, every subsequent American president would be evaluated by the “first 100 days” of his own presidency, for weal or for woe. Thus, Wednesday evening President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress at the end of his “first 100 days,” a session radically reduced in attendance and thoroughly masked to accommodate our Covid-19 times.

And how would God be judged, were we to use the “first 100 days” marker for His administration?

Creation of Earth—seven days (Genesis 1-2)
Global flood over Earth—forty days (Genesis 7)
Ten Commandments—forty days (Exodus 31)
Ten Commandments recarved—another forty days (Exodus 34)
Conquest of Jericho—seven days (Joshua 6)
Ministry of Jesus—1,260 days (Daniel 9/Luke 3)
Salvation of the human race—three days (John 19-20)
Pentecost—fifty days (Acts 1-2)
Re-creation of Earth—someday (Revelation 21)

Is anyone surprised God can accomplish so much inside the “first 100 days” criterion of American politics? “Yes, but of course, He is God!” To which we all agree. “And besides, He doesn’t have to work with Congress.” We nod.

But would you like to know how many days really matter to God? The answer is—one. “Today, if only you would hear His voice” (Psalm 95:7). Because “today” is the only day that matters for God when it comes to you and me. “Today” is the only day that counts. Not “yesterday” nor “tomorrow.” But “today.” Have you listened for His voice today?

Why the big deal about “today?” Because of both the immediacy and urgency of this diminishing commodity called “time” for us time-bound inhabitants of this planet. It is the only day we have—“today.” And so it is the only day in our lives that truly matters to God—“today.”

“‘Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve’” (Joshua 24:15). Because “today” is the only day we have left to decide for Jesus and eternity. Not “yesterday” or “tomorrow.” But “today.” Have you reaffirmed your choice of the Savior today?

Our spiritual forefather, William Miller (the Baptist farmer turned preacher), concentrated his entire life and life mission on one day, the day of Christ’s return. Even after the bitter disappointment of Jesus not returning on October 22, 1844, three weeks later Miller wrote: “‘I have fixed my mind on another time, and here I mean to stand until God gives me more light.—And that is Today, TODAY, and TODAY, until He comes, and I see HIM for whom my soul yearns’” (quoted in Francis D. Nichol, The Midnight Cry, 267).

“Today” and “today” and “today”—how better to deal with the immediacy and urgency of this frazzled, pandemic world we inhabit? Who cares about a hundred days? The only day that matters between you and Jesus is still “today.”