Live in the here and now

The other person tells you something. Suddenly he stops, looks at you and you realize: he just asked you something and you have no idea what. Because your mind was somewhere else entirely. Which of you knows this?

Then you study or do an apprenticeship and hope that you can finally work to earn money. You make money. But luckily for you, you’re still missing a partner at your side. Then you meet someone you fall in love with. How long is it until the wedding before you can finally live together? Now you really want a child. Then the baby is here and you can hardly wait to finally get out of the phase of sleepless nights and dirty diapers. At some point your children will be older and you hope that the teenage years will pass quickly. And before you know it, the children are out of the house.

There are some painful experiences, some stressful times that we wish would be over soon. The grandchildren come and at some point they don’t come anymore. You’re looking forward to retirement, finally leaving work behind you and having more time, and before you know it you find yourself in diapers…

Each of us has probably already caught ourselves thinking one thing or another.

Again, I think the last topic in our series between rest and action is a lot to think about. We have realized that we live in fast and stressful times. Restlessness kills joy, gratitude and appreciation. It kills inner peace and relationships because love takes time. So does our relationship with Jesus.

We have heard Jesus‘ invitation, who wants to give us life to the full and who invites us to come to him, to find rest with him, to lay down our burdens, but also to learn from him for our lives. It’s not about a conflict between these two sides, peace and action, but what we find difficult is finding a healthy balance.

We looked at how we can recharge with God and the rhythm he gives us with one day of rest per week. We talked about slowing down in our everyday lives and living simply. Then we looked at the value of work but also the challenging aspects and how we can do what Jesus calls us to do.

We talked about 5 major lines that each fills in their own unique way, all to the glory of God:

• Providing for our own livelihood
• My responsibility for my environment
• Gifts that I should bring into God’s kingdom
• God’s commission to me to pass on his love and tell about it.
• Last Sunday we looked at how Paul lived it: buying up time, being content with what you have, order in the family that contributes to peace.

• The goal is not silence and loneliness but rather a return to God.
• The goal is not the Sabbath, but a restful, grateful life of lightness, appreciation, wonder and worship.
• The goal is not easy living. It’s more about freedom and concentration on what’s important.
• The goal is not to slow down either. It’s about being present – for God, for people, for the moment.

And he quotes from a book by CS Lewis:

“People live in time, but God has ordained them for eternity.”

So I think he wants them to focus their full attention on two things in particular: eternity itself and that point in time they call the present. For the present is the point at which eternity touches time.

He wants them to be always concerned either with eternity (which is synonymous with God Himself) or with the present, and otherwise follow the present voice of their conscience, bear their present cross, receive the present grace, and give thanks for the joys of the present .

Our days of pain are the building blocks of our character, our crucible of Christlikeness. No matter whether it is a good day or a not so good day, if it is true that goodness and grace accompany me all the days of my life, as Psalm 23 says, then how many days do I miss this goodness in my hectic running?

Yahweh – and that doesn’t just mean “I am”, but also: I am there. Right now, also in the future, but also here and today in the present, with you, and I know how you are, what moves you, you have my full attention.

This is his invitation to you this morning and that is why after this sermon we will again offer to pray for everyone to go together to this God who is there.

I read a Bible text from Philippians 3:7-14

In order to be able to live here and now it is first important:

1. Clarify your past

A sentence that we often ignore. Of course I can’t forget everything. Imprints make us who we are:

• My parents‘ house.
• Experiences that were beautiful.
• Maybe some pain that helps me to sympathize with others today who are experiencing similar things
• Mistakes I can learn from.

The past helps me to recognize what has become and who I am.

Two weeks ago I talked about the importance of discovering what God has placed within us:

• our strengths and weaknesses,
• also our borders,
• different levels of resilience, that we don’t have to do everything, but that we can also say no to things that don’t suit us out of an identity as God’s beloved children.

Some traces I cannot change, even if I would like to. The fact that I was bullied for a long time in elementary school shaped me. And when I come into new groups today, a pattern immediately starts to appear inside me. I can’t change that, but I can say to myself: Wait a minute, today is different than it was back then. And I can remember, I have a new identity: I am a beloved child of God.

Paul uses the image of a runner. And a runner becomes disabled and cannot run properly if he keeps looking behind him. He slows down, he stumbles.

We notice this when we are often mentally stuck in the past. It may be when I’m older that I’ll reminisce. Life was so beautiful. What a reason to be grateful. But doesn’t it have something to give me today?

I also notice this when I mourn the strength and opportunities I once had.

Or with the attitude: “everything used to be better.” Maybe it really was like that, but God still works today. But maybe I’m also mourning some of the wrong decisions I’ve made, the paths where I took a wrong turn and which still have an impact today.

If only I had, I would be.

It’s like a rope that prevents me from living today, and I miss it today in order to shape my future differently.

Paul would be the one who would have to suffer the most. He was there when Stephen was killed; he persecuted Christians. Paul knew this, but he also knew God’s great mercy

Hebrews 10:17 : “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.„

How do you deal with your guilt? Did you bring her to God? Do you know the one who can forgive all guilt? And if God has forgiven you, have you forgiven yourself? And have you forgiven others for what they have done to you or spoken into your life?

Paul writes: I consciously leave behind what lies behind me, concentrate completely on what lies before me and run towards the goal with all my strength in order to receive the prize.

And this is my second point about being able to live in the here and now:

2. Set your goals

What’s the goal of football if you’re not just playing in the garden as a hobby and it’s all about having fun? That’s right, you want to win. And to win you need a good defense that prevents goals and a good attack that scores goals. But imagine playing on a field with no goals. What would happen then? The players would pass the ball to each other and at some point they would no longer feel like it. It would be a pretty lame kick.

This is exactly what happens, in my example, but also in our lives. Conversely, if we have a goal, an image of the future that we live towards, then that motivates us and then creates focus in the present.

Mark Twain once said: “When we lost sight of the goal, we redoubled our efforts.” And that’s exactly what our everyday lives sometimes look like.

Focus, doing what God calls us to do, these 5 lines that we had in the sermon two weeks ago, which I mentioned again at the beginning, coupled with what we bring with us, who we are, helps us to set priorities in everyday life and draw boundaries.

the gain I seek is Christ;  it is my deepest desire to be connected to him and:

I want to receive the prize—the prize of participation in the heavenly world to which God has called us through Jesus Christ.

Where Jesus makes the way for by paying for our guilt on the cross, offering us forgiveness and thus reconciliation with God.

Some have careers, others money, others security as their focus. Another focus that many people have, perhaps not consciously but nonetheless, is worry and fear about the future. And that causes me to focus on it all the time in the present and it paralyzes me or causes me to make bad decisions.

Jesus invites us: 1 Peter 5:7 : Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

The topic is very current in view of our world events and we will talk about it on the 1st of Advent in our Advent series Glimmer of Hope, how we can experience courage and peace instead of fear.

At best, we ask Jesus what he wants for our lives. Then it’s “Set your goals” “Understand what God wants from you”

Now we have arrived in the present, because it’s not about always being stuck in the future, but rather that my goal determines my present, because that’s the only thing I can influence. And at the same time, I shape my future through the present.

3. Live in the present

I have a goal. And that’s why I want to get to know Jesus more. I’m running towards this goal with all my strength, that’s what I can do now. That is my priority. This affects my present. And it helps to persevere and stick with it. Because Paul writes these lines from prison.

At the beginning of the series I quoted Michael Zigarelli:

The cycle we live by often looks like this:

• Distractions
• These lead to stress,
• little performance
• little impact
• restlessness

And one distraction after another comes, he does everything and puts off the real work. And in the evening he did everything except what he wanted to do and should have done better.

• Not for rest, but from rest
• Refueling is also possible during the week, but not as extensively.
• But we can come to Jesus in everyday life.

We looked at the Sabbath. This also includes refueling with Jesus. With him we find peace and quiet and gain a new focus. This leads to good performance, good sleep, which is so important for our recovery.

Distractions will come. I would like to illustrate this with a picture:

I have a cake here. Mmm, and it smells so good. Who wants some of this cake?

Everyone wants some of your cake. And before we know it, he’s gone. Time is not the problem. If this cake stood for 24 hours, then we have already established that we sleep around 7-8 hours. Working hours in our country are becoming less and less, but I also know that many people work overtime and others have two jobs. Let’s calculate 9 hours. Eating, time in the bathroom, shopping, doing housework again 2 hours a day. Then we still have 5 hours left. 5 hours that we can fill.

And many people fill this time according to chance or pleasure, according to the I don’t want to miss anything principle or according to the yes I can principle, where you always say yes to everything.

But we have seen that it is better to ask what Jesus calls us to do and to think in terms of the goal.

If we think about our week and, in the spirit of the story with the farmer, fit all the little things of our everyday life into our daily routine, then there will no longer be time for the important priorities. That’s why it’s important to plan the big areas of life first.

And I think we need some kind of structure. For some personality types, this is a bit off-putting. But what I mean by that is, if we don’t consciously plan some things into our week, into our day, and if it’s just mental, then it won’t happen.

If you say your family is important to you, show me where that is reflected in your week, and if it doesn’t appear in it week after week, then that shows something about your true priorities.

Thomas Härry writes in his book: On the art of leading yourself:

And to keep an eye on my energy, to find my own pace, and not to compare myself

John Mark Comer writes: The goal is practice, not perfection. Several times a day I find myself rushing again. The attraction is sometimes overwhelming. But then I can remember and come back to the here and now.

• What goals do you have in your life or does Jesus have for you?
• And how do you shape your present from there?
• Does your focus show in your calendar and do you live from calm in the here and now?

Jesus says: Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness Hebrews 3:7-8

God is a God of today. He wants us to live today and not always live in yesterday or tomorrow or burn out through hectic pace, restlessness, fear or worries. He has promised us life in abundance, but we only discover this life when we consciously perceive it in the present, when we feel the moment. Then we become grateful and experience more joy and peace.

Jesus wants to speak to us today and we can discover what he has in store for us today.

What a shame it would be if we missed that. And so, at the end, I read to us Jesus‘ invitation with which we began this series of services:

Yahweh is there and you can also be completely there with him. And if points from this series touch you that you would like to implement and that we should pray for you, or you have completely different things on your mind where it would be good that someone simply prays for you, speaks to you of God’s presence, you bless, then you are welcome to come to the back during these 3 songs, where there are people who would like to pray for you and with you.

Amen