Thoughts & opinion from the southampton vineyard team
Right here, right now
by Matt Hyam on 16th June, 2010
I have been reading “The Shack” – again. Good book. Very good book. There are some seriously thought-provoking things in there. If you only read one book this year, read the Bible, but if you have not already, read the Shack second. It’s not the Bible, but you should read it
One thing struck me the other day.
The question was, “do you think that humans were designed to live in the past, the present or the future?”
Now that is a good question.
The answer, according to the book – and, I think, reality – is the present. (Big tick if you got that one right!)
But where do we spend most of our thought-life? Worrying about the future? Looking forward to the future? Ashamed about the past? Celebrating the past (1966)? Thinking about where we want to get to? Scared about where we might end up?
When I read this, it struck me just how much of my time is spent not in the present. I realise that, when I am with my kids, so often I’m thinking about what I would rather be doing or thinking about what I will be doing when they’ve gone to bed.
That’s rubbish!
I should be celebrating every moment that I am alive with my children. When my older son was first born I remember that time stopped still. All I wanted to do was just be with him; to look at him; to love him; to hold him. I was not looking forward to him growing up. I wanted him to be exactly how he was right then, in that moment.
It was brilliant! Not rubbish; brilliant.
When I was a young Christian I always thought that when I was a “mature” Christian then I would not struggle with sin anymore, so I would “hang on” and wait for that to happen instead of living for when and where I was. (Now I understand and I have given up any hope of ever being mature).
You see, despite all of our training and in-built default otherwise, it is actually much easier for us to focus on right now. To walk with Jesus right now. It does not matter where we were walking, because that has gone; or where we will walk, because he has that under control. Just where we are walking. As Jesus puts it in Matthew 6:33,34 – just seek his rule. Right now, surrender to him. In this moment; and now this moment; and this… and now this…
Imagine not worrying about what people will think of us tomorrow? Not worrying about how successful we will be? Not worrying about the consequences of radically trusting him? Not worrying about whether we’ll have enough money!? Just doing it, because we are surrendered to him!?
Look around. It’s a beautiful world. Love Jesus. Love the people around you. Love your family. Enjoy the sights and the smells and the feel of it all.
Kids do that all the time. They have much more fun than us. They laugh an average of 300 times a DAY. We laugh an average of 15 times a day. Why do you think Jesus told us to be like children? It’s much more fun.