Have you ever heard of the “Phantom limb syndrome?” It’s where a person feels sensation in an amputated limb even though it’s not there. I was reading in this book the other day about paradise, and I wondered, have you ever thought about there being the Paradise lost syndrome? It would be when we experience sensation about a state of being we no longer possess. I think we have a memory of paradise. We have an instinct that tells us we belong there, and when that instinct is hindered in some way we feel frustrated. Don’t you ever wonder why we have this innate longing for the perfect relationship? Maybe we have that longing because we once had it. Whenever we become frustrated, I pray that we let those frustrations remind us of our longing for something more. I did my taxes this week y’all so I’m speaking to myself here. There were many frustrated tears and mean things said against the government, but it’s because paying taxes are not what I was made for. I’m just missing paradise. I’m missing that perfect state of being.
So because we are actually living FROM the cross and not TO the cross, time is not running out! This well-known pastor once said that his biggest regret in life was being in a hurry. He said, “I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing… Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.” In Christ, aren’t we gaining time? We stand on the brink of eternity. We could multiply all that He has given if we just go slow. If I’m being real, this is really encouraging to me, a single 25 year old who sometimes get discouraged surrounded my engagements and weddings. It tells me that 10 years with the best guy is more than 60 years with a good guy.
I was reading in my girl Ann Voskamp’s book the other day and she wrote, “The mind would rather fret about the future or pine over the past, so the mind can cling to its own illusion of control. The current moment cannot be controlled. The battle plan of the enemy of the soul is to keep us blind to the current moment.” Isn’t that so true? We feel like we can control anything but the present moment, so we are rarely ever fully present. Please pray for me to be fully present in each and every moment on the race. I want to cherish every moment, with no worries for the future, and no shame of the past. I want to pray for all homesickness and fears and insecurities away in Jesus name! Because I am not of this world. Circumstances and things of this earth do not define me. The first name God gave himself was I AM, right? I AM. In this very moment God is.
