Living Today For Tomorrow

It's amazing how fast time flies! Im sure my parents will tell you it felt just like yesterday when they were taking me to kindergarden or teaching me how to ride a bike. The funny things is that time keeps passing us by and we still take every day for granted. This summer, as I worked along side an amazing man at a funeral home in small town South Dakota, I learned that every day is truly a gift. Terry, my boss and faithful friend, told me - "Aaron, God's time is not our time. And our time is no where near God's time." Today - I am 19 years old, quickly coming upon the end of my second year of college, preparing for a future in ministry, and meditating on the times in my life I took for granted and wishing I hadn't. I wish the days leading up to my grandfathers death could be relived differently. I wish I could go back to the days of high school and live them to the fullest instead of wishing them away. I wish, more than anything, I could go back to those times in my life when I hurt those I love with my words or actions. However, as Im sitting here engulfing myself in all those times in my life I want to go back and do over, my father in heaven is engulfing me in his presence and saying - "Look to the future, Aaron. The past does not matter anymore." We are called in Philippians 3:13 to forget what lies behind us and strain for what is before us. For, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, we are new creations! Too many people in this world, myself included, are striving to live in the past instead of focusing our eyes on what is yet to come! We forget, all to easily, the promise that was made to each and every one of us in Jeremiah - "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to give your future hope." I am here to tell you today that as Christians, soldiers on the front line for Christ, there is no battle we can fight until we have won those within ourselves. One of the rules I live my life by is the old quote "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift - thats why they call it the present." It's hard for some to realize that the past cannot be undone, but its even harder for them to realize that they have the power to change their tomorrow. We stand here, together, looking into the future with all of our hopes and fears, but we do not stand alone.