Today I’d like to talk about living in the present, living in the now. I remember reading a little anecdote about a person who was transferred somewhere into a place that was entirely new to him, a new environment, a new culture a new language. He was having real difficulty trying to live in that present. And he met a lady who gave him good advice. She said, ‘Always bloom where you are planted.’ In other words, don’t just live for the future. Live for the present. Look at what is happening around you and make it count. Sometimes we ship out of the present, if I may use that term that is familiar to you all. But you know, it could be that it’s a bad day that has started. Maybe today you are thinking it’s not going the way it should be and I think I’ll just wait till today finishes. Or maybe you started yesterday, and yesterday was a bad day and you’re thinking, this week needs to get over. Or maybe this is just a part of your life in which you’re having difficulty and you’re saying, this will pass and I’ll just wait till something fresh comes my way.
But I want to tell you something this morning. Here’s the truth about the present. However arduous and strenuous it may be, however difficult and stressful it may be, however challenging and fretful it might be, God’s promise for each one of us today is that He is with us. In Hebrews 13:5 He says: “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you”. What wonderful words from an Almighty God. To each of us He says, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” What God is saying is: “Listen, I’m not the kind of God who stands far away and watches benignly while you struggle through life. I made you and I will look after you. I have a responsibility to you.” Now He may not take us out of a situation, but He says to us: “I will give you my strength and my resources to allow you to rise above your situations and circumstances”. In fact 2 Corinthians 12:9, He says, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. My grace, that is my strength, my wisdom, my resources are all that you need when you find yourself in a weak spot, in a difficult spot. You may say, ‘But I believe, God, but my situation is not changing’. But believing, my friends is not enough. Believing must lead to trust. Believing in God must lead to trusting God.
Let me illustrate. Over 100 years ago, a man by the name of Jean Francois Gravelet lived. He was better known as Charles Blondin and he took the name from the owner of the circus in which he first worked. But Blondin was a tightrope walker. And he grew to much fame because he walked over the Niagara Falls, a distance of 1100 feet, a distance across the Niagara Falls from the United States side to the Canadian side, over a height of 116 feet. Now he walked over that and he had a great following. People admired him and respected him. Once when he was doing this, he finished walking across, then he came to the people and asked, ‘how many of you believe that I can take a wheelbarrow across with me’. Everybody shouted and said, ‘we believe, we believe. Go ahead.’ And so he did. He took a wheelbarrow across and then he came back and he said, ‘do you believe that I can take somebody sitting inside that wheelbarrow across?’ and everybody said, ‘Yes, you can. We believe in you.’ Then he held up his hand and he said, ‘who will be that person in the wheelbarrow?’ And suddenly there was silence. There was a difference in believing what Blondin could do and trusting him with their lives.
It’s the same thing with God. You may believe in Him, but do you trust Him with your life? Maybe you started this week with a good attitude but Monday didn’t get off as planned. And now you’re kind of resigned to the week, just going along with a ‘que sera sera’ attitude, whatever will be, will be.
Dale Carnegie, famous for his book, ‘How to win Friends and Influence People’, said “one of the most tragic things I know about human nature, is that all of us tend to put off living. We’re all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” My friends, are you blooming where you are planted or have you shipped out of the present and are living in a future that hasn’t yet come?
An unknown author said ‘if you have one eye on yesterday and one eye on tomorrow, you’re going to be cock-eyed today.’ Somebody else said ‘having spent the better part of my life trying either to relive the past or experience the future before it arrives, I have come to believe that in between these two extremes, is peace.’ Are you lacking peace this morning? Do you feel that you’re caught between the devil and the deep sea, between a rock and a hard place? Have you shipped out of life? But today is a gift that God has given? That’s why we call it the present. It’s a present to us. Maybe you’re looking at all this and saying why does God allow me to go through this. I’m going through a difficult situation.
A little boy watched a butterfly trying to break through its cocoon. And as he saw it struggle, he felt sorry for the butterfly. And he said to himself the next time I see a butterfly I’m going to help it out of this struggle. And sure enough, the next time he saw a cocoon breaking open, he reached out and broke it open and helped the butterfly come out. But to his utter amazement, he saw that the butterfly couldn’t move. The process of breaking out of the cocoon was what strengthened the butterfly’s wings so that it could fly. When we are helped out of a process prematurely, we’re not able to be all that God wants us to.
I want to challenge you this morning. Are you taking the present, allowing God to work through you, however difficult the situation may be? Henry Longfellow says this in his poem ‘Psalm of Life’:
Trust no future however pleasant
Let the dead past bury its dead
Act, act in the living present
Heart within and God overhead
Where are you this morning? Are you able to say I want to make today count? Are we going to leave a worthwhile legacy for the next generation? Lets determine this morning that we will let our footprints be etched on the sands of time. Let it not be said of us that we lived but we never lived. We died as though we had never lived. Let’s make today count for something. Remember God Almighty says to each one of us on this call today – I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. And in moments of weakness today, through this week, through this time, when you fell out of depth and the situation seems to overwhelm you, remember, He says my grace, that is my power, my resources, my wisdom will be made available to you, because in your weakness my strength will be sufficient.
If you believe in Him this morning, I invite you to trust Him. To trust Him with your life, with your situations, with your circumstances. Remember Blondin! Trust Him with your life. May God bless each one of you.
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