Carpe diem.

This post has been waiting in the wings for awhile now. A few months ago, when Scott and I began taking classes of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, I got out my calendar and wrote the class schedule.

Financial Peace. Financial Peace. No Financial Peace. Financial Peace. No Financial Peace.

my calendar, from earlier this year.

As I looked at the pages of my calendar, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we knew that far in advance how things would be? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could anticipate when the storms would come?”

Topsail Island, June 2010

If we knew, we could prepare. We could brace ourselves and make allowance for the impending troubles. We could stock up and store up and make sure we had what we would need when things got hard.

I think it would be nice, in one sense, but really….would I live any differently than I do now? Would I want to live so consumed by the future that I neglected today? Would I want to live in constant anticipation of what is to come, be it good or bad, joyous or painful? Would life be life if it was spent in a time that isn’t here yet?

I know some people who do that, and it consumes them. Every moment is spent thinking of moments that are still to come. That isn’t for me, though. I don’t know if I’d be able to live life today and, simultaneously, tomorrow. One of the two would be neglected, and I wouldn’t be happy with that. I don’t think I could be satisfied if my eyes were so focused on what lies ahead that I missed what is under my nose. Dread and fear - and even excitement - don’t settle well on my heart. Racing heart….restless nights… No, thank you.

I think part of responsible – and realistic – living is realizing that storms will come. We’ve been promised that there will be hard times and times that make us want to crawl back into bed for a few days. However, the same One who assured us of the hard times also beseeched us to live. To embrace the time we’ve been given. To have a life-full existence.

And what’s more, He – the One who created time itself – has promised that He has overcome the things that loom on the horizon. There’s no need to worry, because He – the cloud maker and wave tamer – has it in His hands. All we can do is to live today – entrusting it to Him – so that when tomorrow comes, we can again live for the day. Today is all I have, and I don’t want to spend it on tomorrow or yesterday. Thanks to Him, I don’t have to.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)