What do you think you are going to be doing five years from now? How about twelve months in the future? Is there more clarity when you look out across the next hour?
In each case I find myself anticipating a wide range of things. I find myself walking with Cherry and Mollie (the dog) wondering what interesting turn life will take next. I see myself out on a long bike ride, yet I cannot tell which country the scene might be taken from. I wonder what the conversation will be over breakfast. Yet as strong as the sense of the future is I do not find myself looking to prepare and ready myself for what is to come. It is as if I am stuck in the moment just past.
Anything other than the past has yet to be written and so brings with it a choice. I can anticipate however unless I prepare and take action now the future is merely going to be a repeat of yesterday. It does not have to be that way but given my preparation that is the most probable result! The fact is that while we know “a farmer too lazy to plant in the spring has nothing to harvest in the fall” (Proverbs 20.4) we rarely do anything about it. The cycle can be broken and it starts in one moment and one decision.
I am not critical of your past or mine, or the reality of the present where we find ourselves. The question is only one of where I focus my energies and time. Do my actions and attention in the present give the Spirit an opportunity to give me a sense of God’s love, acceptance, and hope for a recreation for my soul? Will my decisions today lead me toward or away from my future?
This moment represents an opportunity that is unique. You and I have the ability to decide and focus on things that change who we are. The payoff is tremendous! Peace, a sense of belonging, and a blanket of acceptance.
