The Here and Now

7-23-2009

Have you ever noticed the schedule heavy world we live in? We race from here to there, and a lot of what we do seems to center around what we plan to do tomorrow. The days of eating dinner together as a family AT THE KITCHEN TABLE seem to have vanished.

In sports, is easy to “look past” a weaker opponent. In other words, if you have a game against a poor team, and know you have a tough game next, it’s easy to “look past” the weaker opponent. What happens when we look past a weaker opponent…we get beat! How many times have we “looked past” days of our lives. Each and every second of breath is a blessing, and should be treated as such. Most importantly, God speaks all of the time, but we seem to “look past” so many moments of our lives that we miss the messages He’s trying to send.

We are in playoff mode right now with the baseball teams I coach, and the central goal turns to winning. If you lose you are eliminated, and if you win you keep playing. It’s easy to look past each and every second of the game if you only care about winning, and the reality is there are a lot of learning opportunities taking place each and every second of every game. Each and every year that goes by I seem to appreciate the little things more and more. Winning is still extremely important, but I’ve learned the most important lessons to teach throughout the course of a season have nothing to do with baseball. When I was younger, I know I’ve missed a lot of those learning/teaching opportunities. My focus now is to teach these kids to appreciate every second they have to even play the game of baseball. If we win great, if we lose, there’s still something to learn from the experience.

As we go about our daily lives, it’s important to understand that God doesn’t stop moving! Everything you do can be an opportunity to grow. I know it can be hard to find these opportunities sometimes, but they are there. If there’s one thing you can’t get back, it’s time. Stay focused on the here and now, and allow tomorrow to take care of itself. As Matthew 6:34 says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Application:
1. Read Matthew 6:28-34
2. Allow God to reach you at all times. Focus on the here and now!