Living in Today

Last year is gone. You don't have last year anymore. Yes, there are things that happened last year that changed you. There were successes that you enjoyed that gave you more self confidence - but they are mostly forgotten. There were things that hurt you and caused you pain that you thought would never go away - but the pain has gone and you have been changed. Sometimes we let the things of the past cause us new pain and heartache but the cause of this has gone and it's only that we choose to keep on reminding ourselves of it. There are things that you learnt and have never forgotten - they are a part of you now. There are friends that you made and friendships that have grown, but you only have the friends that are there now. Some friends are gone and the times you had together a distant memory. They too may have changed you but it's just the changes that are still with you. You're a year older now and some days are totally forgotten...and you can't go back.

Last month is gone too. You can still remember things about it - the weather was a bit different and the days have got warmer or colder since then. You have grown apart from some people that you were close to and grown closer to others that you didn't really know then. You've found out things since last month that have made you think differently. Things that you worried about a few weeks ago have dissolved to nothing... and new challenges have presented themselves in their place.

Even yesterday is gone. The ripples of what happened yesterday are still very close and you can still feel their effects, but you can't live in yesterday. There's nothing there that you can go back and change. The things you planned to do yesterday but never did are still needing to be done. The things that you completed yesterday are done with and you don't need to do them again.

Today... that's all there is. Tomorrow everything could change. Tomorrow you could meet someone who radically changes the rest of your life. You could make a decision that takes you somewhere that today you never dreamed of being. You have no idea what tomorrow will bring... it could be just an ordinary day or it could be an extraordinary day. The expected could happen or the unexpected could take you by surprise. That's why you can't spend today worrying about it. Today is the only day you can live in and now is the only time when you will find God. He's not the great "I was" or the great "I will be" - He's the great "I AM". Why worry about what tomorrow brings...you only need to know who brings tomorrow.

I have regrets - things in the past that I would like to have done differently but I can't go back. I have hopes for the future; places that I would like to be and things I would like to do but I can't live on dreams. I have to learn, really have to learn to live for today and it's something I find difficult. The bible says to forget about the past and that's not an easy thing to do. It takes effort. I know that real joy - true joy - lies in living for today. Here - now - that's all I have. Every morning I need to wake up knowing that "this is the day that the Lord has made...I will rejoice and be glad in it."