GC New Year’s Message

But you know what the problem is, right?

All of that potential, promise, passion, and purpose is buried beneath regret, fear, and anxiety about the future – a future that isn't even here yet. Sometimes I think our concerns are all wrong. Focusing on the past only causes us to live back there, like Lot 's wife. Focusing solely on the future, keeps us looking so far ahead, we put our passions on the backburner to care for a tomorrow that isn't even promised. The thing, I believe, we should be concerned about is right now.

Right here, right now.

During the days approaching the New Year, we will be writing down goals about everything from losing weight to buying a house to taking a trip to some exotic place. I love goals, so I'll have a few of those too. But given that life is short and so unpredictable, I think I'll be adding some activities that will lead me to live out my passions and my purpose on this earth. I think I'll be composing a Right Now list.

You see next year, I don't want to analyze the tragedies and triumphs of the last 365 or so days. No, I want to check off my Right Now list.

I think about every time Jesus healed someone and then commanded them to move forward. He sent them forward with urgency, the same urgency I believe we're to feel in our everyday lives. He told the Samaritan woman to “go” and the woman being stoned to “go” and each leper and blind person he healed, He told them to “go.” At the base of that command was RIGHT NOW. Do it now!

My request is that each of us, especially those of us who are Christian, devotes some time in our days to Right Now. That would mean consciously choosing to let go of the past and its grip hold on us. It would mean choosing to take our eyes off of the distance to enjoy the Right Now – the moment in front of us. And it would mean that each of us will devote some time to pursuing that passion God has instilled within us on a daily basis.

Right Now is fleeting. As this past year has reminded me, our days are numbered. So let's endeavor to make next year a Right Now year – a year of living in the moment and living without regret.