celebrating the present

July 26, 2006

many nights ago, ann and i were driving around the city. at some point, ann asked me if i ever stopped to enjoy the moment. i thought about it for a while and shrugged my shoulders. i never really thought it before and i was struck by that. what she said was so true. in the days that followed, i kept thinking about what she said.

look around. our culture is speeding up fast. from transportation to computers to losing weight to cooking, we want to get places faster and accomplish our tasks quicker. if it's not instantaneous, it's too slow for us. while there is nothing inherently wrong with this, there is a problem if we develop a mentality to treat life in the same way. sadly, people do. people move through life at such a rapid pace, they never have time to appreciate what's right in front of them. to use a familiar phrase, they never have time to "slow down and smell the flowers."

if we do not slow down, life will fly right by us. we will miss out on many precious moments, moments that should be cherished. time cannot afford to wait idly by for us. it continues at its relentless place. time always moves on, whether we like it or not. every single moment that passes is a moment in time that will never happen again. we cannot get it back. we cannot change what happened. we cannot fully relive it. each moment we have is a gift from God. each day we have is a gift from God.

i've never really learnt to celebrate the present until i met ann. i love every single moment with her. sometimes i wish i could freeze time for a while so i could really stop to enjoy and celebrate what's happening in that moment. it might be something we're looking at, the place we're in, or the simple fact that we're together. each moment is so precious to me and i wish i could capture it all by slowing things down to see them frame by frame. i've learnt that's how you really appreciate something, by slowing down so you can see what's there.

it's like going into a museum and looking at a really nice piece of art. you cannot appreciate it fully if you glance at it for a few seconds. to appreciate it fully, you must stop what you are doing and give it the time it deserves. as you stand there, you can appreciate the colours, the composition, the artistic techniques, the metaphors, the story behind the piece. it's simply not possible to do in a few brief moments. it needs time!

celebrating the present is about slowing down. it's making a conscious effort to enjoy and appreciate what's happening around us in the here and now. it's about remembering and celebrating the fact that all good gifts come from God (cf. james 1:17). at the season of the soul workshop i attended at the willowcreek 2006 arts conference, nancy beach was saying how the season of summer was the one that went by the fastest. when life is going well, it's easy to take it for granted and let it pass us by. i don't want any of those moments to pass me by. i want to celebrate what the Lord is doing in my midst and store them up for when the seasons change. i want to capture every single precious moment.

to celebrate the present, we cannot be solely future-oriented and/or past-oriented. for me, it's far too easy to focus solely on the future. i am a big picture person. i like to see what's up ahead, to plan for what's to come. i delight in dreaming about possibilities. the potential problem with this is, by my looking too far ahead, i sometimes fail to see what's right in front of me. at my church, we are constantly planning different services. after one service is finished, we plan for the next. we try not to think about what's next while we are preparing for one service, but sometimes it's inevitable. i've realized with this constant planning mentality, it's easy to forget what's happening right in our midst because we're too focused on what's coming.

the human eye can only be positioned in one way, at any given point of time. it's not possible to look in two directions at once. you couldn't, for example, look forwards and backwards at the same time. if we're looking only towards the future, we can't see what's in front of us. conversely, if we're looking only in the past, we can't see what's in front of us. that being said, it's important to remember the future and past. in order to figure out where we are today, we must look to the past. in order to figure out where we want to go, we look to the future. but, remember that how we act today shapes our future.

to recap, i believe there's three things that prevent us from celebrating the present:

1. excessive speed
2. a future-only orientation
3. a past-only orientation

slow down. stop. appreciate what the Lord is doing in your midst and give Him thanks. don't let these precious moments of life pass by any longer. celebrate the present.

"as long as we're doing it together"

July 19, 2006

i went out to dinner with my girlfriend's family (and semi-extended family) two sundays ago. it was the first time i met with most of them. when i sat down, her sister-in-law's younger brother started striking up a conversation with me. at one point, he asked us, "what do you guys enjoy doing the most together?" i thought about it for a second, looked at ann, turned back to him and said, "what we most enjoy doing is spending time with one another. it really doesn't matter what we're doing, as long as we're doing it together."

the next day, i reflected on what i had said to him. in relationships, we've all heard how men hate going to the malls with their girlfriends/wives or how women hate going to watch sporting events with their boyfriends/husbands. as i've thought more about that, i think that mentality arises out of selfishness. the focus is on the self: what are my desires, my wishes, my wants. it is definitely not out of love.

1 corinthians 13 is the well-known Biblical passage on love. v.4-5 [NIV, with emphasis added] says, "love is patient, love is kind. it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

i thought about what my relationship with the Lord was like. could i respond in the same way as i did about my girlfriend? could i say that it didn't matter what i was doing with the Lord, as long as we were doing it together? at this stage of my life, i think i can (though i am not perfect at this). if you asked me several years ago, i would have said no. i was still holding on too tightly to my own wants and desires. life was still very much about me, me, me.

let me ask you this: if someone were to ask you what you enjoyed doing the most together with God, what would you say? could you respond by saying, "it doesn't matter, as long as we're doing it together"? i think some Christians would have a hard time saying it. i'm sure you've heard Christians say phrases like, "God i'll do whatever you ask of me, just don't send me to _________ (insert name of a location in the world)" and "God, i'll do whatever you ask of me, just don't make me a ________ (insert profession here)." i know i've said these things when i was a younger.

do you know what the root of these are? you guessed it! it's selfishness. if we say that we love God, our actions, thoughts, words must reflect it. we must be willing to put aside our own desires, wants, ambitions, goals, dreams. otherwise, it is not love. luke 9:23 [NIV, with emphasis added], "then he said to them all: "if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

some of us have been led to believe that God is out to get us, that He's out to make our lives miserable. we're afraid of what He would have us do. these thoughts and feelings are a lie. God has only the best intentions in store for our lives—He knows what's best for us. jeremiah 29:11 [NIV], "for i know the plans i have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God fashioned us and created us with a purpose. only the Creator knows what the created is for. the created only knows its' purpose in the hands of the Creator.

i hope and pray that all of us would reach a point in our relationship with the Lord where our will becomes His will and our desires become His desires. i pray we would be able to go and do whatever He asks of us without bitterness, grumbling or complaint. finally, i pray that our relationship with Him becomes freed from selfishness and deeply rooted in love.