"Everyday a little bigger, but just have fun being small while you're small and have fun being big when you are big."
Now in reality I wasn't going for the profound. I just wanted her to quit pestering me for a bit. Great dad huh? But really I also wanted her to not strain so hard for the future and enjoy the present.
Whether we look to the future with anticipation or with fear Jesus make clear that too much anxiety about the future is a waste. In Matthew 6:34 he states "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
When we look with great anticipation and excitement we often miss the enjoyment available in the day to day things. Sure the future holds much to look forward to, be it a vacation, time with one we care about or the end of a project or even the greatest anticipation found by those who reach the end of their life with faith in the God of the Bible. But too often people can get caught up in the looking forward and trample the flowers of the present.
In the same way when dread and anxiety are our common friends we spend too much time worrying about the dangers of the future. Dangers that most often never materialize. It is a rare occurrence for worry to carry with it a justification in the reality we find once we have arrived.
I easily find myself looking forward to my upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic to begin a C2C partnership with the community of Sierra Prieta. The excitement of a travel to a new place, new challenges and the promise of many adventures all the greater because of the pioneering nature of our trip, easily distract me from the now of my life. The now of spending time with my kids and enjoying time with my wife or even relishing a challenging sale at work.
Surely we cannot turn a blind eye to the future but we must not be so absorbed in it that the present is found to be insignificant and without value. When Jesus proclaimed "...the kingdom of Heaven is at hand ." He was/is offering the greatest thing in life as a reality for now not a promise for a far distant future.
An glance to the horizon with a hard look around, that, I believe, is the way to live.
For more information about C2C partnerships go to www.fh.org or www.cornerstonepowell.com.
