As a young person, we look forward to our life as an adult and the independence it will bring us. We don't really think about the responsibilities it will bring along with the privileges of being a grown up. We are so much in a hurry to grow up that we miss some of our childhood and the bliss of our carefree life (at least for most of us). It seems like with every new generation, children are growing up fast and losing their childhood innocence even faster.
Once we are adults, then we get caught up with everything that adulthood brings into our lives. We have to make a living and build a life, married or single. We discover that adulthood had a lot more than we anticipated as kids. As an adult who is working hard to make a living, we look forward to the time when we could be retired with good financial standing so we could enjoy the rest of our days doing the things we love to do. We day dream about the trips we will take and all the R&R we will have once we are on our own time. Well, I am not there yet, but based on my observations of my parents, life doesn’t always turn out according to your plans. For instance, my dad is busier now in his retirement than when he was employed.
It seems that the most important mission of life is living. To fully experience life, I have learned to be present in the present time. Life happens in the space of now. Now is the moment of time, when life actually happens. There is much time spent in all our lives either looking back to bygone days or looking forward to what is to come. Everything that I have experienced in the past are simply in the past and my worries about tomorrow are simple speculations. The more I dwell on my past, I feel stranded, losing my ability to move on with my life. The more I dwell on the ‘what ifs’ of tomorrow, I feel paralyzed by fear as I lose my ability to be in the glorious now.
My recipe for dealing with the past is prayer. As they say, hindsight is 20/20 so looking back we will always find things in our lives we could have done better. And if you feel you’ve done things that you are not proud of, then learn from your past mistakes and ask God to forgive you of your past sins. The blood of Jesus is just as powerful today to cleanse us if we will only believe. The way I deal with my future is to ‘hope’ in the living God. If you put your hope in him, it gets rid of all that anxiety about the future that you can’t always plan for. This is not to say that I don’t believe in planning, financial or otherwise, but I personally choose to put my faith in God. This faith walk allows me to unburden my heart and life and keep my load light. Faith and hope puts back the spring in my walk and keeps me smiling no matter what life may bring.
Staying in the ‘now’ allows you to fully experience your life. In the bible, the Apostle Paul writes (Philippians 3:13-14), “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal." As Christians, this is critical for us to do. Unless we are willing to let of our past with all its baggage, we can’t really move forward in the things that the Lord will have us to do. The baggage of our past will slow us down if not completely stunt our growth. There is such a wonderful freedom in letting go of our past. As we let go of our past, then we make room for our life in the present. We also allow God’s new blessings to flow in our lives.
By faith, I let go of the past and choose to press forward by living life in the present. Faith is an act of trusting God with my life and all my unseen tomorrows, taking one step at a time. Now is when my life is taking place. Now is the space and time when I can experience my life. Now is the magical moment of time when life happens. The magic lies in the simple act of being present in your own life. Do not let life pass you by! Watch out, your life is happening right NOW!
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