All We Have Is Now Part 1

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"Every one of us is looking
In a place where peace won't find us there
Every one of us is wanting
Something amazing that's in between
The living and the dying
All we have is now"
-Disciple

It has been my experience that there are two things that if not properly handled will make you absolutely miserable.

Your past.

Your future.

While not all of us have outrageously traumatic pasts, most of us have gone through some kind of trauma. Those hurts when not dealt with properly so that they can heal, will cause us to freeze in our present. We let the pain speak to us and tell us to be afraid because at any moment we could be hurt again. It's that uncertainty that causes us to respond with inaction. However, that inaction could also be keeping us from some of the greatest adventures of our lives! 

So many of us feel stuck in jobs that we find no joy in. Yet we are hesitant and scared to leave those jobs to go after something better. Even in our misery we feel a comfort. We may not enjoy the work but we know it. We have grown used to it. It's like an old itchy blanket that we refuse to throw in the trash. Sure, it can keep us warm when it's cold but doesn't feel quite right and makes us scratch and fidget like crazy while we are wrapped up in it. We know that there are other blankets out there but we haven't ever used them so what if they can't provide the same warmth? What if? What if? What if?

On the flip side of the coin is our future. Most of us are striving for a future of comfort and fulfillment. We just need to have this much money in the bank, with a house this big, and the ability to do all of these things. So, in order to obtain that bright glowing future we sacrifice the moments we have right in front of us. Sure it's tough now but it will be worth it at some point in the future when we finally have the fame, fortune, and notoriety we know we were born to achieve. 

How often have any of us missed out on a moment with the people we love because we had work to do? Work that was going to pay off sometime in the future. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't plan for our futures. We should absolutely use wisdom and think about where we would like to be in 5 or 10 years. We just shouldn't sacrifice today on the altar of tomorrow. Here is what the bible has to say about the importance of the moments we have right now.

Matthew 6:34 The Passion Translation
Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time.  Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

Proverbs 27:1 New Living Translation
Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.

So here we are, held back by the pain of our past and misdirected by the stress of our future. All the while, God is blessing us in the moments we have right in front of us but we miss them. Sometimes the blessings are small and sometimes they are grand but every time they are significant.

God has had me on a journey to be fully present and fully alive. On this journey I have learned a few things that have helped me to be more aware of the blessings right in front of me everyday. First, I have had to face some hard truths about my past and allow those hurts to be examined under the full light of God's understanding. There have been things that have happened to me that I never wanted to accept and deal with. Because I had buried them, I was acting out unconsciously in ways that were hurtful to the people around me on a near daily basis. While opening myself up to these past hurts has been difficult, the healing that has come upon me has been miraculous. Second, God has placed me in a position where I have to trust in Him for the future. While I have ideas in my mind about where I would like to be in 5-10 years, my heart has been opened to the possibility of what God has in store for us. His ways and thoughts are higher than mine and the ideas/dreams I've had don't come close to what God has in store. If I hold too tightly to my ideas, I'll end up rejecting the adventure that God has planned.

Finally, I want to leave you all with this quote:

"Yesterday is history tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift that's why we call it the present."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

The place is here.
The time is now.
Gather the Outcasts!
Location: Bethel, OH 45106, USA

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