Dear Friends,
By this time, no doubt, some of you are claiming, others are even complaining that they are missing certain valuable moments—losing and longing. In the midst of this shelter-in-place (or quasi-quarantine), minds drift back to past events and forward to future events, thinking about the good ole times and dreaming in anticipation of better times. But there exist two problems with this concept—origin and orientation. If all good and perfect gifts come from God (James 1:17), that perfect memory or that future perfect moment is only as perfect as much as God is involved.
Again, God allowed and is the Creator of the essence of any good time. Secondly, humans can only experience God in the present. While God exists omnipresent, we are created inside the boundary of time and can only experience moments in the present. The present according to C. S. Lewis is “where time meets eternity.” We cannot travel back to the good ole days nor can we travel forward to anticipated good days.
Consequently, we must learn to enjoy the now. Now is a gift. Bill Keane correctly deduced, “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift from God, which is why we call it the present.” We must learn to enjoy the origin of good times within our orientation. In other words, the Creator of good times exists omnipresently, everywhere at all times, and we can enjoy Him in this very moment. God who exists the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) can bring all the joys of yesterday and tomorrow to bear on today—this very moment. I do not have to reminisce about the past or anticipate the future, but today I can bask simultaneously in both yesterday’s and tomorrow’s joys because my joy resides in God.
~Live Well. Hope Well.
In His Service,
Thomas McSwain, Jr.
Pastor-Teacher
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