Living Each Moment

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing -Psalm 39:6


We spend our days pushing for tomorrow.  When we are children, we sit in classrooms and can't wait for the school day to be over.  We can't wait until our birthday, or Christmas.  We can't wait to be a teenager.  We can't wait to get a drivers' license.  We can't wait for our first date.  We can't wait to graduate.


Then we become adults and we continue to wish our lives away.  We can't wait for the weekend.  We can't wait to get married.  We can't wait for the pregnancy to be over and bring our new baby home.  We can't wait for vacation time.  We can't wait until the mortgage is finally paid off.  We can't wait for retirement...


And in between, we rush.  Even when we have arrived at what we "couldn't wait" for, we are too busy to enjoy it.  We over-schedule ourselves, and if we don't, we feel guilty when someone else talks about how "too busy" they are.  So we schedule more. 


Work, volunteer activities, cooking, cleaning, yard work, school, children's activities, and even our social lives have all become ways of just moving from one thing to another.  And we barely really enjoy any of it. We even often complain that we need a vacation from our vacations.


And then we wonder how we got this old this fast.  Do you look back at your life and see almost nothing but a blur?  Don't you wish you could slow down time?  You can!  Really!  The key is to live each moment.  Really pay attention to the details of life and live them... with gratitude.  


Don't spend your workday wishing for the weekend.  Find those things in the moments of your day to be thankful for.  Every one of us who has a job should be profoundly grateful for just that these days.  Enjoy your conversations with co-workers or clients or customers and really connect with them.  Focus on the talent you have for your job and be thankful for it and use it to the best of your ability.  Enjoy your job.


It's easy to say that we should just cut back on our schedules, but harder to do.  If you just can't do that right now, at least live in the moments.  Enjoy what you're doing.  Focus on the social aspects for your activities and the spiritual growth opportunities and give thanks for every moment.


When we live each moment purposefully, we find time really does slow down.  A few excerpts from 1000 Gifts:

• They say time is money, but that’s not true. Time is life. And if I want the fullest life, I need to find fullest time.

• Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing…. Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.

• It’s ridiculous how much joy a moment can hold.

Voskamp, Ann (2010-12-28). One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are. Zondervan. Kindle Edition. 


Father,
You made the 7th day, the day of rest... of TIME... holy.  Let us treat every minute of time as holy and fully live it in gratitude for all you have given.  Amen.


Joys:  73 degrees and sunny in the morning; mailboxes stuffed full (even if it is mostly junk); Saturday and time to live in the moments