When I ask “where am I living,” I am not asking about geography or the style of my physical shelter. I am thinking more about my frame of mind.
Physician and writer A.J. Cronin once said: “Worry never robs tomorrow of it’s sorrow; it only saps today of it’s strength.”
This really got me thinking about where I’m living. What are the default settings in my mind when something unpleasant happens? Am I living in the future, where I honestly have zero control? Do I live in the past that I can not change? Or am I living in the present where my choices are real and actually make a difference for my future?
When I was 17 I took a set of assessments to help discover my natural aptitudes. One strength I discovered is “Foresight.” This helps me anticipate several steps ahead of the choices before me. I can think and consider consequences of my actions, and of others.
Planing ahead is something I enjoy and do fairly well. Though I do not fully fit into the “Visionary” level of foresight, I hang in well with those who are visionaries and can help them implement those visions.
By identifying some of my natural strengths and weaknesses I am not wasting a lot of time being frustrated by things I would never be good at. I am grateful for the information, because I also received tips and tools to help me manage or over come some of my weaknesses.
“Ideaphoria,” is another aptitude I have. All that means is I have a lot of ideas. My coaches immediately cautioned strongly that just because I have lots of ideas, does not mean all of them are good ideas.
Having foresight and lots of ideas has the potential to be really good and helpful. But there is a problematic flip-side to these gifts: worry, anxiety and fear. If I let myself, I can project out all sorts of scenarios that really, have little or nothing to do with how circumstances will actually play out, or how the other actors in my scenario will act.
I have no control over others, only me. So, it is possible to work myself up into anxiety and fear, for no good reason.
When I allow that to happen I miss out on today. Worry and fear can suck me dry of not just strength, but also of creativity, joy, faith, hope and most importantly, love.
I have come a very long way yet I have not mastered the art of living in the moment. Remembering God gave me foresight, ideaphoria, and other gifts to contribute constructively to my family, work and life is key.
Completely ignoring the possible negatives is probably not wise. Those possibilities are part of planning effectively.
There are still those few moments when I get too many steps into the unknown and I sense confusion approaching. If I go there without the hope and faith that God promises to work all things together for good, that’s the time I need to reel myself back to the present moment.
Taking a breath, remembering the promises of God, I tuck myself back in under the shadow of Abba’s wing. By worshiping the only one who is able to keep all His promises, I don’t run away.
Instead, I rest in the many promises and truths my loving Creator has made to me, and to you. In those moments, peace is restored. John 14:27 promises, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
What are you afraid of or are tempted to worry about? Where are you living? How do you find your way back to the present? When in doubt, ask Abba.
This is a re-post from January 17, 2014
