Right Now

Right now is all I have.

 
Now if you are like many people, you are not focused on right now.  Rather, you are focused on what was happening back when.
 

• Back when the children were small and there was laughter all through our house (my memory allows me to forget some of the other days).
• Back when we were on special vacations.
• Back when dear relatives were alive and were a part of our lives.
• Back when I had hopes and dreams of what was going to be.
• Back when time seemed to stand still.

Yes, I am forgetting much.  I am forgetting some of the insecurity and awkwardness that I felt throughout high school.  I am forgetting some of my years in college when I wasted so much time and opportunity.  I am forgetting how hard it was getting through graduate school, preaching, being married, etc.  I am forgetting the financial stress and strain that we were under during the early years of our marriage.  I am forgetting how difficult ministry was during those early years when every situation was a first for me.

 
Do you relate to this at all?  I suspect that some of you do.  

 
There was a time when I really wasn’t focused on right now.   It is not that I was focused on the past.  Rather I was focused on the future.  I couldn’t enjoy right now because I was constantly thinking about the future and how life would one day all come together.
 

• One day we will have enough money.
• One day we will live in a nice house.
• One day we will be a part of a great church.
• One day we will live happily ever after.

Now this is where this gets even more embarrassing.  I can remember thinking, "One day I will be important."  (As I typed these words, I immediately thought that I had better delete that sentence.)  Now what is that about?  Is that about wanting to matter?  Wanting to be significant?  Is that some kind of ego-driven need?

 
What I found is that real significance is found in Jesus.  Seriously.  I found that there was a way to live a full, satisfying life in Jesus that caused all of these other desires to seem small and insignificant.

 
So, I am "freed up" to live right now.  Right now is where life is to be found.  It is not back then or in longing for some future moment when things will finally come together for me.  Right now, the life of Christ is in me.  Right now, there are people to be loved and served.  Right now, I can be about his mission.  Right now, I can find satisfaction in him above all other things.

 
OK, maybe you didn’t need to read this today.  Yet, I do need to think about this periodically.   So maybe if you are at work or in your office right now, you might give this some thought as you go through your day.

 
Right now.