For as long as I can remember, I have always spent considerable time thinking of the future. When I was younger, I always looked forward to the next “BIG” thing. Whether that was the next baseball season, getting my driver’s license, graduating from college, getting married, or whatever it was I always seemed to look ahead and not truly live in the moment.

Well, now I am older and probably a little wiser. I know that my time on this earth is finite. For me, looking too far in to the future tends to cause me to either worry or not live in the present. Both of which I am not called to do. Matthew 6:27 says, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Just a few verses later Jesus says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)

I need to remember what the title of my very first daily devotional book told me…every day is a gift! It took me a long time to appreciate that but it is so true!

Our small group just finished studying Adam Hamilton’s book, “When Christians Get it Wrong”. Hamilton closed the book by asking us two very important questions. The first one is that in any situation, if we are unsure of how to act, we should ask ourselves, “What is the most loving thing I can do?” The second question was, “Are we becoming more loving every day?”

As we have been digesting those questions this week, this revelation has come to me over and over. I CANNOT do either of those things unless I am fully and wholeheartedly in the PRESENT!! I can’t be loving in the moment if my head is looking forward to something in the future.

This week’s challenge for you is to join us in trying to live up to the call of those two questions. It has really given me a good perspective–a more Christlike perspective.

More to come…
Jeremy