September 6, 2020
Here’s a question that will make you stop and think. In what time frame do you spend most of your day? What I mean by that is, do you find yourself mostly stuck in the past, dreaming about the future, or living in the present? For a lot of us who have lived for a while, if we aren’t careful, we can spend too much time in the past. I am fifty-six years old. You don’t live fifty-six years without having some regrets. Some of those regrets are small, bittersweet “what-ifs”, while others are life changing whoppers. You know what? No matter the size of our yesterdays, they are just that, yesterdays. We can’t go back in time to make different choices or to do things differently. Living in the past isn’t productive because if we spend most of our time rooted in yesterday or last week or last year or twenty years ago, we won’t be very effective today, in the present. So, let’s remember, we can learn from the past, but we can’t live there. Yesterday is gone. On the flip side, there are many who spend most of their time in the future. We dream big dreams about doing big things and reaching awe-inspiring goals. While making plans for the future and having goals in front of us are good and healthy, the problem with spending too much time in the future is the fact that the future isn’t promised to us. Just like we can’t go back, we also can’t control the future because we just don’t know how much future is left in front of us. If we spend most of our time regretting the past and dreaming about the future, we will miss out on the only time frame over which we have any significant control, which is the present. Today is the only day we can control. Today is the only time frame in which we can live. Yes, we can learn and grow from yesterday’s mistakes and we can plan as best we can for tomorrow’s uncertainties, but TODAY is the day we can make a difference. Today is a new day full of new possibilities. I wrote earlier that you can’t control the future and that is true, but doing the right things today sets us on a course toward successful tomorrows, however many tomorrows we might have left. Living in the past is called regret. Living in the future is merely dreaming. Living in the present is where life change occurs. Living today, in the moment, is where we can make a difference. Jeremy Camp asks God, in his song Keep Me in the Moment, to “Keep me in the moment, ‘cause I don’t want to miss what You have for me”. He is spot on. What are you doing today? Walking with God, in step with the Spirit, covered by the blood of Jesus Christ as you go about your day will help you avoid the regrets of yesterday and it will also put you on the right path of fulfilling your dreams of tomorrow. Live for Jesus, be blessed and be a blessing TODAY. Then go do it again tomorrow!
Bro. Andy
