Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
There is a Holy Spirit River and there is a River of Time. The Holy Spirit River taught me some things about the River of Time. There are some parallels. Just like the Holy Spirit River, the River of Time is one of the most precious gifts given to us. Neither of those Rivers remains stationary. We have to take advantage of them at the moment because that moment will soon pass by. Never take either for granted.
There is an old hymn written in 1877, by George F. Root. It is called, Along The River of Time. The second stanza goes like this.
“Along the River of Time we glide, Along the River, along the River, A thousand dangers its currents hide, A thousand dangers, a thousand dangers, And near our course the rocks we see, Oh, dreadful thought! A wreck to be,”
As it is with the Holy Spirit River, if you are going to navigate the River of Time you have to learn how to flow with the current of time. There are rocks in these Rivers and many have been shipwrecked in their faith because they failed to flow with the Rivers.
If you’re trying to live in the past, it’s a dangerous current because it’s gone. You can’t swim upstream in the River of Time (Ref. Rom. 8:38-39) or the Holy Spirit River. There is always a temptation to re-live both Rivers. It never works and you miss today.
If you focus in the future that too is a danger (Ref. Matt 6:34). You’re trying to live somewhere that doesn’t exist. It hasn’t happened yet and maybe it will never happen as you imagine. Most people worry a lot about the future. Most likely, tomorrow is going to happen whether you worry about it or not. The only thing worries accomplishes is that we experience tomorrow multiple times. When you worry about it and when you actually live it and miss today.
As someone said, “If you worry about what might be and wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is.”
If you want your life to be meaningful, the only place that can happen is in the present. Time is now. If you’re not living in now, you’re wasting your life you’re living in an illusion.
One of the oldest Psalms teaches us, “To number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) Once the Lord spoke to me and said, “If you do not learn to number your days, your days will only seem like numbers. One day you will wake up and wonder where your life went.” If we will make a conscious decision to live in the present then God will give us wisdom for living.
I learned something about time when my grandson, Oliver, was born 12 weeks early. We want about everything sooner than later, except the birth of a baby. We want our babies born on time. If a baby is born too early, it is a battle for their lives. If they are born too late, the baby and mother’s life are endangered. Don’t you think God feels the same way about the important things He wants to give us?
“Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time: Fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all your attention, you slow the torrent with the weight of being all here.” Ann Voskamp
Living in the present does not mean that God does not want us to dream and plan for the future. On the contrary, dream big. Set goals and plans for the future, but hold them with an open hand before the Lord (James 4:14-15). Don’t allow your dreaming and planning about tomorrow to replace living in today.
Many Blessings, BW