“Today” is obviously…today! Now and here! The moment! It’s the only time that we can actually live within and utilize our gift of choice. Am I making a choice in the present…right now…to glorify God and respond to him in whatever circumstances I find myself? Jesus soberly warns us about fretting and worrying about the unknown troubles and challenges of “tomorrow”—our earthly future. What are the challenges, and the opportunities, of this day. And…am I engaging them with a whole heart—hungry to learn whatever life-lesson the Father is apparently seeking to teach me as a disciple of Jesus? Is it to work? To rest? To give? To receive? To forebear? To confront? To yield? To resist? To pray? To play? To serve? To be served? To study? To reflect? To eat? To fast? To deny myself? To enjoy myself? To speak? To listen? To plan to act? To act? To go out? To come in? To cover? To expose? To laugh? To cry?
There’s obviously no pat formulated answer for any particular matter—for these are the rhythms of life in the moment. They are all potentially valid responses to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. And…we must learn to dance with our guide! A great human life is therefore a “guide-dance”. What a fantastic innovation and invitation the Father has given us in Christ. And Christ is in us to personally instruct us how to do the little steps that then become the art of the larger dance.
Oh, Father, teach us how to love and live by leaning into Christ who indwells and fills us with the Spirit!
3 comments:
Wow. Cool article Michael. I read all the blogs on living for two days. It is encouraging to hear from someone like you (someone who's a lil' older than me, just a lil') that you have been discouraged by exhortations to plan out your future etc... Having a life-plan etc.. seems more like American values that kingdom of God values. I'm currently trying to work my way through school and plan for my future but I've found I've gotta live life in the now as well. We need faith and love in the present as well as hope for the future (even earthly). But even this hope for the future is wrapped up in a sovereign God and not my own abilities to produce it. As John Piper says, we glorify God by enjoying him forever. Perhaps we could add we glorify God in the present by enjoying him in the present, forever. And then we could add that we must trust him for the future and as peter said "set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1pet 1:13). That's our ultimate hope and earthly hopes , though important,are secondary hopes.
Michael,
Thank you so much. This message could not have come
to me at a better time in my life. I am learning to
submit, lay down my rights, and serve. I wish I could
say it was easier but I have been self protecting so
long that I have forgotten how to love with open arms.
I find I don't want to be taken from or worse... I
don't want to loose who I am. Now I understand living
this way can only produce loneliness and selfishness.
This does not bring me life, it's steals my joy and
makes me angry or suspicious. I am learning how to let
go a little more each day and pray the dangerous
prayers of freedom over my life. Thank you for being
one source the Lord could use. I needed to hear this!
I would love to hear more!
Aleica S
Michael,
This reminds me of a paragraph I read recently in Christian History. It is from Richard Foster:
"This duty to present the moment as the place where I find God is not always a welcome word to me. Often I want to bypass this moment, this duty, in favor of some future moment - one that is more challenging, more stimulating, more rewarding. That, I assume, is the place where God will bless me, not here, not in this task. The simple truth, of course, is that the only place God can bless me is where I am because that is the only place I am."
He bases his comments on the writings of Jean-Pierre se Caussade, whose book has been translated into English as "The Sacrament of the Present Moment." Never read it, but perhaps now I will.
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