Present

Present

Now that the holidays are over and it’s the beginning of a new year, maybe life can settle down a bit. Storing decorations, rearranging furniture and saying goodby to the relatives are all part of the returning to normal whatever that is. It’s time to take a breather reflecting on the past year and what lies ahead.

Not much I can do about the past. I can call to mind all the good things that happened and thank the Lord for them. All the not so good things I can write off as life’s learning experiences. The good and not so good are now filed in my memory bank only to be revisited when my mind wanders back to the good old days.

The future is something else. What does the coming year hold for me? I can guess but I really don’t know. I can be excited about what lies ahead, or I can worry about what may or may not happen. The problem is that I won’t know about the future until it becomes the present.

Ah! The present; the here and now of life. The minutes, hours and days fly by so fast I need a calendar to keep track of where I am. The only thing that I can do about time is to learn to live and enjoy the present. Maybe that’s why it is called “the present” because it is a present (gift) from God for us to enjoy without the burden of yesterday’s regrets or tomorrow’s worries.

Life flies by and we only have one to live. It is easy to get weighed down in our past or nail bite about our future all the while missing the God given enjoyment of living today. Each day carries a mixture of the past and the future that can only be lived in the precious present.

If you are looking for a New Year’s resolution you won’t find a better one than what the Psalmist wrote, “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be full of joy and be glad in it.”