This young college student needed some time alone, and he got it. Or, maybe more accurately, somebody got him. You see, Marc Schelske had no idea the moment was coming when he uttered the words “Father God, Just for Today” and a song appeared, seemingly out of nowhere in a dark room in southwestern Idaho (see map-picture here) in the mid-1990s. Marc may feel like a vessel that was used to verbalize and ‘musical-ize’ the words and chords that he sang in just a few moments, and which have stuck around and impacted so many people unpredictably. The One to whom Marc was talking had something to produce that day, and Marc might say he was merely the receptacle, a guy who was willing to pour out for others what had entered into his being during that episode.
Marc Schelske was probably in his 20s in 1994-1995 when the unexpected ‘…Just for Today’ prayer emerged during a dark-stage moment in his busy young life. Marc says he was plenty involved in his college studies and youth ministry one week while visiting a Boise, Idaho-area school as the guest speaker and worship leader. So, perhaps that was one reason he needed a moment just to himself. The dark stage in the school’s auditorium, where a grand piano that he had an urge to play was also located, provided what he needed. Soon, Marc stealthily found himself experimenting on this amazing instrument, and the words and music of the song just jumped out, an experience that he frankly says he hasn’t been able to repeat. But, he also mentions that the words reflect how he wants his prayers to be every day. ‘Just guide me today’, is how Marc might sum up what he was saying. That week’s students heard Marc’s invention, but he says he never expected it to have traveled so far for so long, two or three decades after he first spoke the words. He also taught this small song in a few other venues, but he’d be the first to admit that it certainly was not very complicated. Perhaps that is the source of the song’s appeal. When a person feels overloaded, and just at a loss for words, the simple, unadorned phrases of ‘Father God, Just for Today’ are the only medicine one needs.
Marc certainly knew that God is infinite, and capable of so much more than anyone can fathom, right? Perhaps the connection between a human life and a divine God is rather like a structure that requires electricity to function, but not too much voltage all at once that could overload the circuits. That’s me, this limited structure that needs a link to power that I cannot acquire on my own, even if it’s just a microscopic amount. The Spirit need not explain to me how He does things; I cannot understand the whys and wherefores anyway. I just need one thing when I talk to Him, the same thing that Marc had when he approached Him on a dark stage sitting at a piano: Trust. Trust Him. Where else will you and I find what Marc found, a resource who can send a simple little song to faraway places, and listen to me in my space every day?
Source for the song story is here: https://marcalanschelske.com/just-for-today-again/
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