Close your eyes for a moment, and think back over the events
of the past week. If you’re like me, you’re
almost always in a state of transition. How
much of your time did you spend reliving events of the past, both good and
bad? How much of your attention was
focused on the future and what it holds for you and your ministry? Was there any room left for the present?
Obviously, we need to keep an eye on the past – the rearview mirror, as I wrote about before. It’s
good to know where we’ve been, so that we can put where we’re going into
context. But as any good driver knows, we
can’t keep moving through life looking in the rear view mirror, or we’ll likely
end up crashing into obstacles we didn’t see in the present. If we
continue to dwell in the past, the hurts of the past will constantly fester and
annoy, with little chance for healing.
Likewise, we also need to keep an eye on the future to see
what lies ahead of us. If we listen, God
speaks clearly to us: in dreams, words,
and visions, alerting us to the changes ahead.
But as with the past, too much attention to the future can be
dangerous. It’s all too easy to focus
only on those promises of things to come and ignore the realities of the present. Then our yearning for the future is no longer
a thing of assurance, but a source of growing disillusionment, impatience, and
anger, capable of destroying faith. The
more we dream of tomorrow, the more likely we are to crash and burn in the
present.
Somehow, we must maintain the fragile balance of living rooted in the present. Aware of our past, but
not letting it completely define us. Aware
of the future, but not consumed by the promises of it. Content to dwell in the present, looking for
the myriad of ways that God is intimately involved in our daily lives.
Too often I hear myself telling friends that I’m stuck in a
holding pattern, just waiting for God to deliver. And there are times when that is certainly
feels like the case. It’s rather arrogant
of me to assume that God isn’t at work, though;
maybe, just maybe He has other things for me to do in the meantime.
Lord, help me to be “content with whatever I have!” (Phillippians 4:11)
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