Living in the Now

Have you ever seen the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler? The 30-second recap is that Adam's character is unhappy with his life, so he is gifted with a magical remote that controls life. He can pause, rewind, fast forward, mute, etc. 

That being said, let it be known that I am NOT unhappy with my life! I am so blessed in my life with my job, my apartment, my church, everything!

So why is it that I constantly find myself spending more time in the future than in the present?

As most of you (hopefully), Nicaragua has been a huge part of my life ever since I traveled there in 2008, and I feel that is going to be a large part of my future. I travel back to Nicaragua in less than 48 hours, and that is all I have been able to think about for the last two months. I get caught up in the phrase, "This time in __insert time measurement here__ I'll be in Nicaragua." Looking more long-term, I feel that I very well may be living there someday in the future.

Let me share some of my recent good-news moments:

• I have three new co-workers, all of whom are so wonderful to work with and passionate about what we do.
• I have had more students working on their class than I did at this time last year. They are coming into the school and working. Huge victory!
• I have an apartment! I moved in late July, and I have loved living only 10 minutes from work.
• I led my first team to Nicaragua in July. It was an adjustment in focus going from participant to leader, but I was so blessed and learned a lot.

There are other "little" things, but you get the gist. So why, with all of these wonderful things happening, am I dwelling in the future? 

I have pondered this question for the last couple weeks and arrived at the following conclusion: The future is glamorous with sparkling possibilities of what could be, and this tends to overshadow the present. Having a bad day? Tomorrow will be better! Experienced a victory today? Just wait until you see what's coming up! But eventually, the future becomes the present, and what we thought was going to be spectacular is merely cool, or sometimes even disappointing. 

Putting too much pressure on a spectacular future often just leads to disappointment. I don't think it's wrong to look forward to the future, or even to get excited for something, but where do you spend most of your time? Thinking of what could be? Or focusing on what is now?

Dwelling only on the future means we miss the significance of the little victories in the present.

So I am striving to live in the present, not the future.