Now part 1
I know I've preached and Ranted on this before, but I'm convinced that God has a master plan. A masterful master plan in which all things (that are already IN Divine Order, because of the cross) are revealed to BE in Divine Order. In which the Son(s) of God manifest in the earth and begin to rule and reign as kings and priests. (Again, we already ARE the Son(s), and we already ARE kings and priests. What all of creation is waiting for is the MANIFESTATION of what we already are.) But the question seems to be: What do we do in the meantime? Because we know that our God is a NOW God. His timing is perfect, and His timing culminated on that old rugged cross 2,000 years ago. But it seems like we, as a species, spend so much time either thinking about the past--and letting the past define us--or worrying about the future that we miss out on right NOW. There's a saying for that: "The past is history, the future is a mystery. All we have is right now. Right now is a gift. And that's why its called the present." So, in a word, what we do in the meantime is... live. And I'm not saying you should live like you're going to die tomorrow. I'm saying that--in the light of the gift that we've been given, which is the abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life of God--we should live like we're going to live forever. We shouldn't squander what we've been given. We should be good stewards. Psalm 17:14 in the NLT says, "By the power of your hand, O LORD, destroy those who look to this world for their reward. But satisfy the hunger of your treasured ones. May their children have plenty, leaving an inheritance for their descendants." And, as a father, I have to tell you I think about that a lot. I want to leave my son in a good place if I end up going to (and through) the grave. I want to make things better for him than they were for me. I want him to have an inheritance. My point is, if we squander what we've been given today, and we have a whole lot of tomorrows left... that's no good. But at the same time: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:34). There has to be a balance. I heard it said one time that, "worrying is like praying for what you DON'T want." And if we spend all our time in the past, or the future, we miss out on NOW. And what we do now AFFECTS what happens tomorrow. So instead of worrying about it... DO SOMETHING about it. Build that better world. Because when you do that, when you work on a better tomorrow, you end up with a better today. Even if you don't see the results right away, you have the accomplishment of a hard days work. You have that feeling of, "I was productive today." You take what you have right now, and you use it wisely. What's that book that preacher wrote? "Eat the cookie"? Something like that. I think. Anyway. You shouldn't make yourself miserable today in the hopes of a better tomorrow. But you shouldn't sacrifice your tomorrows for a momentary pleasure today. Eat the cookie? Yes. Go bankrupt because you want ALL of the cookies RIGHT NOW? Probably not a good idea. Patience is a virtue, and good things often take time to build. So, like I said, balance. Live right now. Right where you are. But don't let what you want right now rob you of what you want most...