Living in Today
“Making the very most of your time [on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence], because the days are [filled with] evil.” Ephesians 5:16 AMP
The simple act of flipping a calendar page rattled me this morning. There in black and white, it glared at me like cat eyes glowing in the night.
SEPTEMBER 2021!
How could it be? Wasn’t it just February yesterday? I clutch the chunk of 2021 days that have already zipped past like a car out of control. I pause and ask, “Where did it go?”
Do you ever have the urge to stop time?
The truth is, as I type these words the date is Aug 31, 2021. I’m not on that startling September page as of yet, but I peeked ahead for planning.
We plan for tomorrow, but we must live in TODAY!
During my three week visit with my grandchildren from Seattle I experienced it a ton of times. Having not seen them for eighteen months, I couldn’t believe the growth, the change. I had enjoyed glances at them through Facetime calls, but nothing could have prepared me for the shock of my babies being so grown up. Not only in stature, but in maturity of speech and action. I found myself searching for a remote enabling me to pause or even rewind their little lives.
The world is changing so quickly that I also find myself longing for a life remote. One that would allow me to press pause or rewind to a simpler time—normalcy of life as we once knew it. Perhaps even STOP! A time when there was less evil. I long to grab another opportunity at the moment I missed. I want to say or do it differently, but I only have this moment.
The truth is the present moment is the best time there is. We are alive right now because God has chosen for us to be a part of this page in His big love story. Grands grow up, traditions shift, rules change, life disappoints, people we love die early, governments fall apart, evil flourishes, but God...He is always the same.
Not only is He the same, unchanging every day of our lives, but He is already on every page of our lives. Theologians call this His immanence. Put simply, there is no place—or time—where God is not. There is no time with God so He has been in every day that is past and He is in every day in the future and certainly He is in this one day that I have been given.
With these great truths in hand, my mind and heart settle down. I can choose to live in this day called TODAY. And I can choose how I will live it. I so desire to live in the truth of this key verse:
“Making the very most of your time [on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence], because the days are [filled with] evil.” Ephesians 5:16
I choose to make the most of my time on earth.
I choose to take advantage of each opportunity.
I choose to use each day with wisdom and diligence.
I choose to live in faith not fear.
I choose to love with God’s love.
I choose to keep my eyes set on Him, not on the events of the calendar page.
I choose to live forward instead of looking backward.
I choose to love my grandchildren right where they are.
I choose to live with great expectation, not regret.
I choose to surrender my life to His hands.
What do you choose TODAY?