Pressing On

Life is always moving forward. What's happened in the past is over and done with. What's going to happen in the future can only be theorized. You can't control the future, and you can't live in the past. But the present, the current, the now; THAT is our realm. Yet I find that we don't like the idea that we're stuck in the one-dimensionality of time. We always wish we could go back and change that one thing, or make sure that this certain idea happens in the times to come. Whether we're measuring by days, years, months, or hours, we're never content being here. Yet here and now is where we are. There's nothing that we can do about that on any level. So why do we try so hard? That's an answer that I simply don't have. What I can say however, is that while reminiscing is great, and planning is important, we need to start focusing on the matter at hand: this very second. One breath at a time, our biological clock is ticking ever so slowly towards either eternal life with God, or eternal life without Him. And that should be our focus. We should live every moment for our Creator, because we honestly can never actually know if it won't be our last. And how cool would it be to go out serving the Lord? Our lives are moving in forward motion. There is no pause, there are no retries, there is no "skip chapter" button. We need to stop dwelling in the past. We need to stop overly worrying about the future. Seize the day; do something extraordinary! Don't get overwhelmed by things that you can't redo. Don't freeze up because you don't know what's going to happen. Take each day by the hand, and run with it! Treasure each breath that swells inside your chest, and revel at the beauty of creation with every blink of your eye. And when the uncontrollable factors of life try to hold you down and suffocate you, break free! God didn't put us here on this Earth to cower in thought of the future, He didn't give us the gift of memories so that we could spend all day thinking about them; He put us here so that we could thrive; so that people would see how joyous and free our lives are and wonder, "What the heck do they have that I don't? Because I want some of that!" Live each moment and action for The Lord Almighty, because quite simply, that's what we were created to do. Live in the now, run alongside the flow of time and appreciate everything that comes your way. Take nothing for granted. And start to truly, truly LIVE.

1 comments:

Gary Barnes said...

Reading this was strange for me. The things you said here about past/present/future, nearly word-for-word, are the main core beliefs of Zen philosophy that you guys made me feel like I wasn't "allowed" to believe. Maybe we're just not on the same page, and maybe you don't actually understand the things I believe. But I feel like so much of our discussion about religion has been one-way. In reality, the last thing I ever wanted/needed was another "teacher," which is why things have been so frustrating for me, and why this situation just kept getting worse. All I ever wanted was simply a friend to talk with. And for communication to truly happen, it has to be a two-way street. Otherwise, one person will probably end up just pushing the other away...