Wishing My Life Away
I was talking with an 80-year-old man earlier this week. He told me that when he was younger, he was always longing for the weekends, the vacations, the adventures… They couldn't get here fast enough. Now that he is 80, he realizes how much of his life he wished away with impatience. Time gets faster as you get older, and there is less of it left.
I realized that is what I have been doing. I spend my weekdays longing for the weekend – so I can sleep in or take a trip somewhere or just relax and do nothing. I'm getting impatient for this World Race to start, and I'm beginning to wish away the next 6 months. It feels like this trip can't get here soon enough.
He is the God of the "Now"
I know that God is already in my tomorrows and my yesterdays, but He seems to have the best for NOW (John 2:10). Today, here in Ridgecrest, is just as important and just as much a part of God's will for my life as the 11 months 11 countries of next year.
I need to stop wishing away my days (shouldn't they be His days?) and live more intentionally every day – practicing His presence NOW, following in His footsteps NOW, loving the people He brings to my life NOW, allowing my moments to be interruptible by His still small voice NOW. Yes, prepare for tomorrow. But the adventure and the calling is always NOW.
"Come now, your who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year, there, buy and sell, and make a profit;' whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.' But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." James 4:13-17
