"Who of you by worrying can add a single our to his life?"
I recently heard a celebrity share about meeting a fan a while back. The fan never took his eyes of his phone screen as he taped and took pictures of the whole brief meeting. Wasn't even able to shake hands well because he wasn't looking. The celebrity was really taken aback by the whole thing. Didn't you want to meet me? You can look at pictures of me online anytime you want!!
As a people, we have lost the simple enjoyment of being in the moment. Every brief experience is only a reflection of something that has come before, or, a prelude to something tomorrow. We grow restless. Discontent. Frustrated. And the more we refuse to embrace the moment, the more we lose that moment forever.
A recent study on memory showed that all this constant picture taking of events that we all like to do actually is hampering our ability to create actual memories. Do you get that? Taking pictures to have a memory is causing you to actually not have a real memory. Only a photograph that becomes you looking at someone else's life.
We never live in the moment. Either the past holds us captive, or, anxiety and dreams about the future diminish our "nows". Think about it. How many moments today did you find yourself reliving some past event that you regret(or enjoyed)? How much energy did you put forth to contemplating scenarios about "tomorrow" that you have little to no control over? And the more we do that, replay sparkly HD memory films, the more we resent how dull it currently is.
If only it was yesterday........
Tomorrow can't come soon enough.....
Jesus shouts out through the din. He says, "YOU HAVE NO CONTROL.....YOU MAY VERY WELL DIE TONIGHT!" But also, within that, he gently encourages us...."God is the source of your hope, and HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN TODAY!"
Something that is disgustingly popular today is the phraise, "YOLO", or, "You Only Live Once". It's meant to be a sort of rallying cry to just be crazy right now because who knows what might happen to you. And someone might be reading this and thinking, "Yah, Jesus, the original YOLO'er!". If you are thinking that, please slap yourself.
This is not Jesus telling you to just embrace the crazy side of you and do something outlandish. The context is about finding God in each moment that you have. Giving Him your past pains and your future frets. To live in the freedom of the now knowing that He is going to do what is right for you ALWAYS.
There is a powerful shift that takes place when we begin to live in the moment the way Jesus calls us to.
When God owns our now, our past begins to reveal that patterns of hope and love that He was laying down for us, even while we were His enemies. And our past becomes a testimony of Joy found in trials.
When God owns our now, our future becomes a wide open tapestry that is not controlled or defined by any one experience, event, relationship, or pain. And our future no longer becomes something we have to try to make happen, but simply to experience.
You are not the person you were yesterday. You are not the person you will be tomorrow. Don't give those people to God. Give Him who you are right now. And they will become His as well.
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