Living for the Moment

I’m drained today.  Hours at the pool, in the sun, with the kids pulling on me....I’m spent.  It gets worse.  Problems arise. Issues develop.  It’s coming from all perceivable sides and I’m just physically tired to top it off.  It’s one of those days, ripe for Satan to start beating me down spiritually.  

Thoughts of inadequacy take shape, failure.  I begin to only hope in some future tomorrow.  “It will all get better after I get this done, then that.”  I’ll get back on track AFTER I put out these current fires.  Maybe even a deadline is assigned...two, three months from now...it’ll be different.  It’s the same feeling we get when we’re trying to get into gear after the pain of any spiritual, mental or physical crisis.  Someday it will be better.  Someday we’ll know God’s will for our lives and we will get moving in that direction. Until then, we’re in neutral, or putting out fires and dealing with daily life issues at best.  There’s always something, isn’t there?

“Forget about His will for your life!”  I read this chapter heading in Francis Chan’s new book, “Forgotten God” and I thought maybe Francis had lost his marbles!  Then he explains,

How many times have you heard someone say, “I just wish I knew God’s will for my life?”  I know I’ve longed for this before.  But now I see it as a misguided way of thinking and talking.  There are very few people in the Scriptures who received their life plan from God in advance (or even their five-year plan, for that matter!)  

Francis uses the example of Abraham who was told by God to pack up and start walking.  He didn’t know ANY details.  How long, where to, would there be a benefits package, etc.  God said to go, he went.  Francis points out that we need to stop waiting on God to show us the whole picture and instead respond to the Holy Spirit’s leading today, in this moment. He says, “It is easy to use the phrase ‘God’s will for my life’ as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience.  It’s much less demanding to think about God’s will for your future than it is to ask Him what He wants you to do in the next ten minutes.  It’s safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day.”

So true, isn’t it?  Satan can debilitate us from living fully for God today by simply making us think of a future day and keeping us busy with issues or in waiting on “plans to be revealed.”  What we really need to remember, what I need to remember, is that the Holy Spirit lives in me NOW, wants to work in me and through me NOW.  

There will always be fires and the next thing to keep me at bay.  What really needs to be done in some moments is, as Paul said, “I resolved to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified.” 1 Cor 2:2   Suddenly my day just changed :) Thank you Lord!

Today's Song - Blink by Revive

Teach me to number my days
And count every moment before it slips away
Taking all the colors before they fade to gray
I don’t want to miss even just a second more of this

It happens in a blink
It happens in a flash
It happens in the time it takes to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there’s no stopping time
What is it I’ve done with my life
It happens in a blink

When it’s all said and done
No one remembers how far we have run
The only thing that matters is how we have loved
I don’t want to miss even just a second more of this

(Chorus)

Slow down, slow down
Before today becomes our yesterday
Slow down, slow down
Before you turn around and it’s too late