Every evening is a reminder that this life passes, and that each day brings us closer to meeting God.
Do not close the day with only the body’s weariness, but with the heart’s examination — and do not expect it to come easily. The mind flees its own light precisely in the evening: it finds excuses, delays, or settles for a hurried glance over the day, so as not to see what it does not want to see. Abba Dorotheos called this „not cutting off one’s will” — and the examination of the heart is itself a cutting off of will, not a formality. Ask yourself in truth, not merely out of habit: where did I follow Christ today, and where did I follow myself? There are evenings when the answer is poor, when you find nothing good to give thanks for, only shame. And it is precisely there, not in the easy evening, that the real struggle is fought: for good, give thanks to God; for evil, repent without despair — not as a ledger that closes, but as a wound you show, not hide.
Do not carry anger, judgment, or cares you cannot bear into the night. St. Paul does not say „do not be angry,” but „let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26) — he knows anger will come; he asks only that you not carry it past one day. Leave these things before the Lord, even if your hand reaches back for them in sleep. Sleep, too, is an exercise of surrender: you close your eyes unable to keep watch over your own life, and God remains awake.
If you have sinned, ask forgiveness. If you have been blessed, give thanks. If you have been tried, entrust that day too to God — even the one in which you had nothing good to confess. No day lived with Christ is lost, even if it was full of struggle — especially if it was full of struggle.
Live each day so that when the last evening of your life comes, you will not be afraid to entrust it into the Lord’s hands. The one who learns to place each day before God, with everything hard in it, will be able, at the appointed time, to entrust his whole life to Him in peace.
„I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:8 LXX)
