I wonder what the the Father thinks of all our new year promises each revolution around the sun? I spent some time this morning thinking of last years ‘promises’ or resolutions for 2008 and sadly they did not get far beyond January. For some reason though that will not hinder me from sitting down at some point today or tomorrow and making some goals for ’09. There is something about us as humans that keeps us convinced that the future can be better than the present. We are always hopeful for tomorrow. If you were to ask us for some evidence as to why we are hopeful for tomorrow, our best evidence would be circumstantial and something along the lines of a hunch. I mean we can point to coming things and know that at their coming our lives will be better, for example, this year Mari and I will have child number two and three at the same time. We have good evidence that leads us to believe that life will be better in the future. But most of the time we have no strong evidence that our lives will be better in the future. And even our evidence of Mari’s growing belly and numerous ultrasounds is dependent on God’s continued protection of our little ones.

The reality is most of us spend the majority of our lives in the past reflecting or in the future dreaming. We look to the past and reflect which causes either joy over happier days or guilt due to poor decisions and maybe a little of both. We look to the future with hope of better days, or of things working out the way we wish them. Wherever we spend most of our mental living, either the past or the future, while we are there we miss the place life is actually happening. Maybe this year, we will not think about the year, and only think about the day. I am learning about myself that I am most happy when I am not looking backward or dreaming forward too often, but instead just enjoying the moment that is grace filled.

You see our pasts are full of forgiveness, and our futures do have hope because God has promised good to us, but our present is where his true riches are…right now in this moment. see them….?