When the Future Becomes the Past
Every day, people busily scurry about from one priority to another, barely making time to sit down for a breather. Priorities related to our marriages, family, work, church, and life in general seem to overtake our limited 24-hour a day time frame. Those 24 hours are planned, experienced, and forgotten or regretted. Once passed they can never be relived.
Daily, I think about all the priorities that I had the day before that were either pursued and accomplished or left on the wayside because I simply didn’t have time. My time was interwoven with priorities of work, church and family life. While these are not bad priorities, they are not THE priority.
So many times, people think about the past and all the accomplishments, failures, or things left undone. They think about the present and all that they must get done before the lights go out. They think about the future and what they desire, want or need. Rarely do people think about the choices made that moment and how quickly they become the past.
A wife desiring to serve her husband may think about the great things she did for her husband yesterday and planning how she can make it happen again today. She may think about ways she can serve her husband tomorrow. But rarely does she think about the word, the action, or the deed that she is ready to use right now, in this micro-second that will have a profound effect on her marriage that one minute later becomes the past. So many times, I think about the past as yesterday, last week, last month, last year, years ago. Rarely do I think about the past as one minute ago.
A busy mother may think about the schedule of school, practice, plays, concerts, church, and playdates and become inundated with feelings of being overwhelmed and lacking in managing it all. While trying to “fit” everything in, she will miss those eternal moments unless she is walking in a mindset of praise and honor.
Sometimes I think about tomorrow and the priorities planned that need to be accomplished. Proverbs 27:1 says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” In Matthew 6:34, Jesus said, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” James 4: 13- 14 says. “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” Matthew 6:30 says, “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!” In Luke 19:5, Jesus understood the importance the living, planning, acting in the moment of faith. After arriving at his destination, Jesus “looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” The result is eternal. “And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house..”
Thinking beyond this moment goes against God’s instruction to us and means we are teetering on taking control. He doesn’t want us to think beyond this moment because He knows we don’t have the knowledge He has and doesn’t want us slipping into the quarry of worry, fret, anger, hurt, apathy, or rejection. Does this mean we do away with our “to do” lists? I don’t believe so. The “To Do” lists can keep us on track and focused. I don’t think though that “To Do” lists should be done beyond today and I do think “To Do” lists should be flexible to allow for God’s “interruptions.”
When we walk in a constant mind of praise and honor to our King, we are walking in the eternal moment. We store up our treasures in Heaven. Our mind can’t become cluttered with temporal things when we stay focused on the Lord. Sometimes, I will be singing praise when I am as I make my bed, traveling to an appointment, cooking dinner
Today, make your moments eternal moments of honor and praise rather than regrets and worry.
