Today

By Pastor Paul Gauche

Today’s Word: ‘Today’ as in… tomorrow never comes.

I’m sitting at a red light. My fingers are tapping on the steering wheel; old school Morse Code for “C’mon, let’s go!”

Waiting in line at the post office, I shift from one foot to another. My resting foot isn’t resting; it’s tapping. I’ve got places to go, people to see, things to do.

In the middle of a set of planks, I’m thinking about late April and how far I still have to go before hitting my health goals.

Five minutes into my 20-minute meditation with Headspace, my mind is so far into “tomorrow” that “today” is already a distant past. How utterly weird is that?

Sound familiar? I understand that this may be more about my personality than universal truths, but there are some universal truths here.

Think about how often you project yourself out of the present moment. You’re thinking about task lists for today, schedules for tomorrow, what you need to do for next month, your goals for next year. Does all of that overwhelm you at times? Do you ever wonder how you’re going to organize your life in such a way today as to get all of those things completed tomorrow?

Feeling tension, uncertainty, and even anxiety in the present is usually about a future that has not arrived and, in truth, never will arrive. Tomorrow never comes. Sure, it’s natural to feel tension about things we can’t see, uncertainty about what we don’t know, anxiety about what hasn’t arrived. But since the future hasn’t arrived, and never will, getting caught up in trying to manage the unseen, the unknown, and the intangible is unhealthy and of no use.

The challenge for us is to live fully into every present moment. We might be surprised by how equipped we are to meet the next moment by being present to this moment.

Jesus reminded his followers not to worry about tomorrow; to deal with each challenge as it comes today. Tomorrow never comes. So, welcome today, and receive your next breath as the gift that it is.

#100days50words

Paul Gauche is the Pastor of Life Transitions at Prince of Peace. His posts are part of his #100days50words project, where he blogs about a different word each week. You can follow his project on Instagram (@pgauche) or his blog, Thriving Rhythms.