the gift of the present

I don't know about you, but I have trouble being present... often.

I am so tempted to look to the future, to dwell on what will happen, to obsess over what is yet to come.

I think part of it might be because I'm so ambitious - which is never a bad thing. The Lord wants us to succeed, to do good works, to prosper - but as with all things in life, we must find a balance.

A balance between today and tomorrow. A balance between our present and our future.

One of my favorite bands, Needtobreathe, has the greatest opening line in one of their songs. When I first heard it, I froze. So simple. Yet so profound...

"Ain't no gift like the present tense." 

my sweet nephew helping me open a birthday gift a couple of years ago. he is five-years-old now and growing up way too fast. I definitely need to embrace each "today" I have with him.

In life - in this life, especially in our culture today - we are constantly bombarded with messages of "more": do more, buy more, more more more. We are bombarded with social media: tweet more, instagram more, post more more more.

Not to mention the comparative nature of it all... "Look at that perfect dinner they cooked! I'm eating a can of beans..."

I don't know about you, but there's nothing like social media to make me feel like an epic "Martha Stewart fail." (If you haven't looked up #pinterestfail, you should should definitely take a peek if you're in for a good laugh.)

With all this comparison, it's easy to constantly feel as if we are failing, that we aren't doing enough, that we need to do more!! Thus we obsesses over the future and what we want to accomplish. It's exhausting.

In my career as an actor, it's easy to compare - to see the jobs everyone else is booking and feel as if I am somehow wasting my life away. It's easy to dwell on the future - the next audition, the next job, the next line on my resume. It's all too easy to focus so much on the things I want tomorrow, instead of the things I have today.

But then those words from Needtobreathe linger in my ear... Ain't no gift like the present tense... and I am so convicted.

I love this sweet gift my nephew made in school last year... not quite sure how a gift to Jesus is telling Him you want Him to give your little brother gifts, but it's sweet and selfless nonetheless! :)

Soon enough today will be gone. Today is tomorrow's yesterday...

Will I look back tomorrow and realize that today took away the joy of yesterday? And that the joy of today is being taken by tomorrow?

Let's accept the gift that is so graciously bestowed upon us when the sun rises each morning. Let's embrace the gift of each day by knowing that our labor is not in vain, by knowing that God is in control of our lives, and by knowing He will reward us for fighting the good fight - our own fight that is ours, ours alone, and is not to be compared to anyone else's.

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised… But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” – Hebrews 10:35-36, 39

Let's make the most of one of the greatest gifts of all... the gift that is the present.