LIVING TODAY

This last week I was thinking again about how hard it is to live in the now.  

Sometimes it seems like it’s the most difficult thing in the world…to focus our commitment, our energies, our lives completely in the present.  

We’re pulled so strongly in two directions.

We’re pulled toward the past.

We bask in past victories and accomplishments.

We idealize the people in our past…past loves …past relationships.

Some of us think of places we have lived…we build them up.

And so many of us think…if only we could have those things again.

Now, some of us sort of live in the past in a different kind of way.  

We think about the past and we’re never able to pull ourselves from the mistakes we’ve made – from what we think of as radically missed opportunities.

There’s a lot of people who live in the world of 

If only

(examples)

All of us can look back on past sins and what we think of as missed opportunities…and it’s amazing how much power  we let these things have over us.

There’s a whole lot of people who basically live in the past.

And then there are a whole lot of people who, attempt to live in the future.

These’s a whole lot of people who might not articulate it but this is the way they feel…. I’ll really begin to live when my financial situation improves.

I’ll really begin live when I can meet the right person.

I’ll really know happiness when I can get that right job….or….when I get that degree or that promotion.

I’ll really begin to live when I can move to a bigger apartment.

I’ll really begin to live when I can move out of New York City.

I’ll really begin to live when I start to feel better…when my health improves.

And the problem with people like this is that they keep waiting for something to happen….they keep waiting for their ship to come in…they keep waiting for life is magically change…and they miss the business of living in the process.

(quote by Rd McKuen

Finding My Father p. 73)

How many people are like this.

They keep looking….waiting…longing…dreaming hoping….praying …for something to happen…in the future.

They put the business of living on hold.

And then their life is over.

Today is the day to live folks

Today is the day to love.

Today is the day to serve.

Today is the day to forgive.

Today is the day to take what the Lord gives us… to embrace it and to live fully.

Happy is the man

And happy he alone

He who can call today his own

He who secure within can say

Tomorrow, do thy worst

For I have lived today.

Horace.

Sing……….Morning Has Broken

Amen