“Guilt lives in the past. Worry lives in the future. Peace lives in the present”.1
If the amount and variety of usage a word gets in a spoken and written language determines the overall importance of the word, then time is a very important concept in our culture. We speak of being on time, in time, behind time, ahead of time, in the nick of time, out of time, full-time, part-time, and half-time. We speak of spending time, using time, and wasting time. We divide time by twelve (midnight to noon) and by twenty-four (0100-2400), and we have divided the earth into time zones. Time is one of the most important resources we have at our disposal.
No matter how they measure time (by twelve or twenty-four), and no matter which time zone they live in, people tend to find themselves living in a division of time consisting of the past, the present, and the future. Their past is the record of their existence when viewed through a rearview mirror. Their future is what their anticipated existence looks like when looking through a windshield. Their present is that moment of now, that is constantly populating their past while continuously converting their future into their present. The desire of most people is to have a good past that feeds a good present so that a good future becomes possible. Making that trifecta of goodness a reality is a key to fulfilled living.
The trifecta of goodness becomes reality by living a life that properly balances time spent in one’s past, present, and future. But not in a 1:1:1 ratio. A balanced life will find most of our lives being lived in the present with brief forays into our past and into our future. We should visit the past from time to time to learn or be reminded of the lessons our past has taught us. We should visit our past to gain encouragement as we remember our successes, victories, and even near misses. We should visit our past to derive hope from it, as we reflect upon our failures and shortcomings and gain strength from realizing we have survived in spite of them. We should visit our past to remember the blessings of God to generate in us deep feelings of gratitude for His goodness. But we should limit our visits to our past because if we live the majority of our life there, we could find ourselves, on the negative side, fixated on grief, regret, shame, guilt, “wish-I-hads”, and/or “if onlys.” As we rehearse God’s goodness, we should be careful not to allow ourselves to drown in a sea of nostalgia that robs our present with a consuming desire for a return to the good ol’ days in our past.
While we’re limiting time spent in the past, we should also limit time spent in the future. The value of looking into the future is there you will find stimuli for dreaming, envisioning positive outcomes, setting challenging goals. The future is where hope dwells, but only if our futures are grounded in faith that God can and will come through. But beware, the future is also where worry dwells, and nothing can rob us of God’s peace in the present more than to assume He won’t or can’t come through for our good in the future, which is what we’re saying when we worry. Visit, but don’t dwell.
A friend of mine, who recently was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, sought me out for advice and counsel, knowing that I had been diagnosed with it over five years ago. As we talked, I realized she was doing in the early days of her diagnosis exactly what I had done in mine. She seemed to be living more in the future than in the present as she dwelt on what might happen to her body if her Parkinson’s did to her what it was doing to others who have had the disease longer than she. Knowing the potential peace that awaited her by living in the present and not borrowing from the future, I said simply, “Live today, today and wait to live tomorrow, tomorrow.” That’s what Jesus meant in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:33-34 (HCSB) when He said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” That’s living today, today. He then added, “Therefore, don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” That’s living tomorrow, tomorrow.
The payoff? Peace in the present.
1 James Clear, JamesClear.com, 6/13/24. Best selling author of Atomic Habits.
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