Living in the Present

I had been listening to Michael Card while editing a post... and just as I opened up a nice new blank blog post, I heard this line:

"Reject the worldly lie that says/that life lies always up ahead"

Ah, how we need that reminder... Or at least how I need it. I am so tempted to live in either the past or the future--forgetting that all too quickly what was once the future is slipping with alarming alacrity into the past.

I was three, longing for the day when I would no longer be required to take naps. At eight or thereabouts it seemed life would be completely figured out by twenty--surely by then I'd be married and know exactly what to do in every situation. I was ten, thinking that sixteen was positively ancient. I wondered what it would be like to have my driver's license--wouldn't it be neat to actually be able go to the store and get a few things quick, instead of joking about it? And, more recently, it seemed like it would take forever for mama to get that little hidden baby out so we could see her.

Well, guess what? I don't have to take naps anymore. (To my chagrin, sometimes.) I am past twenty; not married--and I haven't the foggiest idea of what to do in far too many situations. Sixteen is long gone and wasn't near as old as I thought it was. I've had my driver's license for over three years now. Esther has been outside of mama for over two months!

Time is not staying still, folks. And once it's done, it's d-o-n-e. As in, FOREVER. No retries, no extra lives. This isn't a video game.

How can we really grasp the horrifying finality of that? We are each given a gift: a certain allotment of time. We don't know now long it will be. And in that time, there is work to do.

Only one life,

twill soon be past.

Only what’s done

for Christ will last.

For some reason, God wanted you here now. (By the way, I think there once was a proper way to use those three elements... )

"Here is a test to find out whether your mission on earth is finished: If you are alive, it isn’t."

"The Future" never really comes. It just doesn't. All we ever get on earth is right now. This moment.

"The important thing is to receive this moment's experience with both hands. Don't waste it. 'Wherever you are, be all there,' Jim once wrote. 'Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.'"--Elizabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity

Oh, how much easier this is to write about than to live!

Do you have any ideas for living fully in the present?