Living in the NOW.
As we continue to live with the pandemic hanging over our heads it becomes more and more difficult to live in the NOW. We find ourselves thinking of how things were yesterday or last month or imagining how things might be tomorrow. As we do that we forget to live in the NOW. This morning as I had my devotional time with God, I made a conscious effort to stay in the NOW. I focused on every word of scripture. I listened to every word a speaker spoke or a singer sang. As I did so, I was able to shut out yesterday and tomorrow and focus on right NOW. I must say, it was not easy. We are so programmed to multi-tasking and to allowing circumstances to determine what we do that we've forgotten how to be in the NOW.
As a college student, I began in a co-op program. I would go to school for a quarter and then work for a quarter. I worked for a chemical company. We had one man in our section who would be so focused on what he was doing that if you came into his lab, he would not even know you were there. Being able to be so focused made him invaluable to the company.
Paul reminded us of the need to live in the now and to narrow our focus when he said in Philippians 3 when he wrote "My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, and to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained this---that is, not already been perfected---but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single minded." I realize that I stopped short of the better known part of chapter 3, but I want to emphasize that Paul had ONE aim and that he was SINGLE MINDED. He didn't let the regrets of yesterday nor the anticipation of tomorrow take his focus off of his goal. If we miss out on what God has in store for us TODAY, it will definitely impact our tomorrow. Learn to live in the NOW.
As a college student, I began in a co-op program. I would go to school for a quarter and then work for a quarter. I worked for a chemical company. We had one man in our section who would be so focused on what he was doing that if you came into his lab, he would not even know you were there. Being able to be so focused made him invaluable to the company.
Paul reminded us of the need to live in the now and to narrow our focus when he said in Philippians 3 when he wrote "My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, and to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained this---that is, not already been perfected---but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single minded." I realize that I stopped short of the better known part of chapter 3, but I want to emphasize that Paul had ONE aim and that he was SINGLE MINDED. He didn't let the regrets of yesterday nor the anticipation of tomorrow take his focus off of his goal. If we miss out on what God has in store for us TODAY, it will definitely impact our tomorrow. Learn to live in the NOW.
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