Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. James 4:13-17 (NIV)
Life takes place in the here and now and not in the “oughts” or the “if’s” of the past and future. We often waste so much time regretting the past which no one can change or dwelling on the future which no one can control. We can’t possibly cover everything that might occur. We are to “forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead” as the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians, “pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus”. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the constant One and not on our changing circumstances. It so behooves us to stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. Many of us wallow in the regrets of the unchangeable past or the worry over the unpredictable future of which we have no control over – totally missing the present which is the gift. What we have is now, the present is our present and what we do with gift is important – eternally important. Interestingly, money can be lost and made again, but every minute is an unrepeatable miracle – when it’s gone it’s gone.
We live our lives to the utmost by making the most of each opportunity daily presented to us by our Father. Nothing takes Him unaware. He Who makes known the end from the beginning is never caught off guard or taken by surprise. We must remember this when our “oughts” and “ifs” begin to pull us backward into the unalterable past or forward into the unpredictable future and seek to live each moment as a gift from His hand. Our God is a God of the present. He is in every moment, be it hard or easy, joyful or painful. When Jesus spoke about God, he always spoke about God as being when and where you are. “When you see me, you see God. When you hear me, you hear God.” God is not someone Who only was or Who only will be, but the One Who is, and Who is for you and for me in this present moment. We do not need to be fearful or filled with anxiety. We go forward in His power for His glory and He will never let the righteous fall. We can depend upon Him to lead and guide us home. Jesus came to wipe away the burdens of the past and the worries of the future. He wants us to discover God right where we are, in the here and now.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Philippians 3:12-16 (NIV)