Tonight as I lay in bed with an aching body and a pounding head, my mind begins to wonder. In three months from now I will begin nursing school. Ahh the mixed emotions are almost overbearing at times. What if I don't make it? What if I realize I actually don't like nursing? What if, what if. Why do we base our lives so much on those two words? Normally when we are using those two words we are often talking about the past or the future. We think about the things we could have or should have done. We think about the things that might happen. This past month I have been dwelling on those two words way to much. What if I can't do it? What if I don't have enough money to pay for all my bills while I'm in school? What if I lose that person? What if I never find a place to fit in or belong? What if I always feel like a stranger? This morning in my devotions I was reading a devotional book by Joni Eareckson Tada and she was talking about how we dwell too much on the future. We are always preparing for the future. We tend to look at today as a day of training. A day of preparing us for the future. Think of the things you did today. Most likely you started off your day with a list in your mind and a goal for what you wanted to have done by the end of the day. This is how we live our life. We look at each day as part of the process to reach our goal or future. But then Joni said something in the book that make me stop in my tracks. She said that what we call the process God calls the end. To God, our future is right now. He wants us to live in this moment! The things we do today, the conversations we have today are the most critical in our life. We need to learn to embrace today and live in each moment. I need to stop dwelling on the future and start embracing where I am today and what I am doing today. How often have I focused on the future and missed critical opportunities that were right in front of me that very moment. Today is our future. We aren't promised future or tomorrow so lets make each day count. Embrace His presence because He doesn't just offer it in the future, He offers it today and right now!
"This moment is the future for which you've been preparing!" -Joni Eareckson Tada
"What you call preparation, God calls the end. And if you have a further end in view, then perhaps you are not paying sufficient attention to the immediate present." -Oswald Chambers
