Moment

Moment

Give us today our daily bread.

“LOOK DEEP INTO the other person’s eyes,” the instructor stated. “Just stay in the moment, notice any thoughts you may have, look away if you need to, but then come back.”

This was an exercise given at a training I attended on an early Monday morning, with very little coffee. As I stared awkwardly into the eyes of the stranger next to me, it was entirely too uncomfortable for this introverted girl.

After what felt like an hour, but was probably closer to five minutes, the trainer ended the torture, or exercise, and shared why she chose to have us do it. She explained how hard it is for individuals to stay “in the moment.”

“Studies have shown that about 47 percent of Americans spend most of their time thinking about the future, whether that’s tonight, tomorrow, or even next year,” she said. “The other half of us spend most of our time thinking about the past.”

She shared how challenging it is to just be in the moment; hence the incredibly awkward exercise of staring into a stranger’s eyes. But what she said next got my attention: “People who spend all their time thinking only about the past suffer mostly from depression, and people who spend most of their time thinking only about the future suffer mostly from anxiety.”

I was struck by how true these statements are. Depression makes sense if you’re constantly thinking about the past, especially when you can’t change or alter things that have happened. And anxiety seems logical if you’re only ever thinking about the future, worrying about what is to come, wondering what is next.

But God offers us another option. Scripture tells us that we do not need to worry or be afraid about the future. And time and again God tells us that he loves us and will take care of us and provide for all our needs. That he also looks past all our old mistakes, forgives us, and offers us freedom from our being depressed over things we’ve done. We have freedom to really be where we are, confident that God is here too, offering us everything that we need for today. And mostly the freedom to be in this moment.

Lord, thank you for giving us all that we need for today. Amen.

-Kendra

One Good Step: Practice being in the moment today.