Living for Today

This morning, as I was driving in to work, the song "This is Your Life" by Switchfoot came on the radio. As I listened to the song, I felt God speak to me through these lyrics (printed below from this site). God is calling us to live for today -- not to live in the past or to live in the future -- but to live in the here and now.

Too often, we get trapped in the past. We relive things in our lives -- mistakes we have made, sins we have committed, good times with family and friends -- and spend all our time looking back and not looking at the present. I see a lot of churches like this, so caught up in history and tradition that they do not realize that they are not leaving a legacy for the future but are merely living in a legacy of days gone by. Living in the past keeps you from moving forward with God. It limits what He can do through you because you are not willing to move ahead.

After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the disciples remained in the city of Jerusalem. True, they experienced Pentecost, but by and large, they just remained locked in the past, remembering Jesus and what He had done and not moving forward. Jesus had told them to "Go and make disciples," yet they sat there statically waiting for disciples to come to them. Finally, God allowed persecution into their midst to send them out into the world.

Likewise, we can be trapped in the future. I work with lots of older adults who are living for retirement. They walk through life with blinders on, not caring about their job or their life, but concentrating on living only for the future, for the day "they retire." Their whole existence is wrapped up in what they will do in the future, not what they can do now.

We do that a lot with our life situations. We say things like, "when I get that raise," "when the kids are grown," "when school is out," etc. Living for the future. Putting all our eggs in a basket that may never come. In the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21), Jesus warned us not to live for the future but to live for Him in the here and now. In verse 20, God says, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?"

We are not promised tomorrow. We are not promised our next breath. So, if we are to serve God, then we must live for today and for the present and quit putting off things until tomorrow that we can do today. Likewise, we have to quit living in the past and live for God today.

Look around you right now. Who is there that needs to know that you love them? Who is there that needs to know that God loves them? Where can you serve God at this moment? What needs can you meet for others in Jesus' name? Live for the present and not for any other times. God described Himself to Moses as "I Am," not "I was" or "I will be" but "I am." We need to live for Him now and not in the past or the future.

Artist: Switchfoot
Album: The Beautiful Letdown
Song:This Is Your Life

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
Yesterday is a promise that you've broken
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

This is your life and today is all you've got now
And today is all you'll ever have
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

This is your life
Are you who you want to be
This is your life
Are you who you want to be
This is your life
Is it everything you've dreamed it would be
When the world was younger
and you had everything to lose

Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over

This is your life
Are you who you want to be
This is your life
Are you who you want to be
This is your life
is it everything you've dreamed it would be
when the world was younger
and you had everything to lose

Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes