no matter what we do, life always moves on.  sometimes it feels like our heads are spinning and other times it feels like we are being tortured by the seemingly long duration of it.  our perspective is always tainted by our circumstances and what we wish those circumstances would be.

college students spend the end of each semester finishing up papers they procrastinated on and studying for final exams that attempt to put a numerical value to the knowledge retained long enough to put on paper.  most of these students spend this time wishing they were finished.  they want to be done and hang out with friends and go home.  few ever consider finals time to be fun and exciting.

now i’m not arguing that taking tests is fun or that writing papers is the most enjoyable thing someone can do.  my point is that we do this with a lot of things in our lives.  at work, we can’t wait to be finished with this big project or complete whatever task before some deadline.  with families, we can’t wait to be finished with some event, so we can go do something else.  with our fun time, we are always hoping that it was longer and end up forgetting the fun we’re having now.

do we miss life because of our perspective of time?  do we actually enjoy anything anymore?  it seems like we’re always looking to the future to provide some currently unattainable state of being.  have we forgotten who we are because we are focused on who we want to be?

christmas is coming soon and is supposedly a holiday about Christ’s birth.  hasn’t it become a holiday celebrating consumerism, materialism, and egocentrism?  what do you think?  have we become so focused on what we want for christmas and what we hope people get for us that we forget the heart that should be behind the gifts?  do we really celebrate the birth of the Messiah; the one who came into the world to restore our relationship with God; the one who offered another way to live that is separate from the philosophies and ideologies of this world?

isn’t relationship with God the purpose of our life?  shouldn’t we be focused on pursuing him?  shouldn’t we be focusing on today and what God is saying to us through everything we experience; through school, through work, through fun?  shouldn’t we be excited about we are experiences?  it seems that we save that focus and excitement for church or relaxation time because right now we are too focused on hoping that what we are doing will be over so we can do something else and then we just end up hoping for something else and so on.

i am alive now.  why do i stop caring about being alive now?  christmas is a celebration of being alive because Jesus, the very son of God, cares so much about us that he wanted to do something so we could have a genuine relationship with him.  maybe christmas has outlived its usefulness and we need a new holiday.  maybe we could call it Jesus’ birthday.  that would be fun.

back to my original thought.  can we really live today and if not, what’s stopping us?  i am today, tomorrow it don’t know, but today i am here and want to love everything that goes on today.  i want to do something to change the world today.  i’m tired of starting movements, i’m tired of more groups, i’m tired of waiting to change the world.  i want to change the world today.  i want to live today and do something about today.  Jesus is alive today and i want to be alive with him.

live today!

peace,
christopher