Between Two Thieves

It has been said that Jesus, the Eternal Now, was crucified between two thieves: "What might have been," and "What might yet be."

In other words, yesterday and tomorrow. These are the two greatest thieves known to mankind.

Living in yesterday - if yesterday was good - makes us critical and judgmental of what's happening today that's different. We waste our time lamenting that things are not like "the good old days." If yesterday was awful, living in it can keep us trapped there, bound up in resentments, bitterness, fear, and anger. It robs us of any happiness that might be happening in today because the past clouds and colors our perceptions through a dark and repressive filter.

Living in tomorrow - if we think tomorrow will be better than today - robs us of the simple pleasures that happen in the moment. All we look for is "pie in the sky bye and bye" and our feet are not firmly planted in reality - we are way too "cosmic" to be of any real use to ourselves or to others. If we think tomorrow will be horrible, and we worry about how we'll ever manage, it too robs us of the strength we have been given to handle today's problems, because we spend all of our allotted strength on worrying about what might happen in the future.

Living in today, in gratitude and expectation, is a very powerful thing. First of all, it is where God lives. He said that He is the great "I am." Not "I was." Not "I will be in the future." Right now. Everything we need - He is. Second, because God is in the present, He is present to help whenever we need Him. Third, it's so very liberating to live in today, free from the chains of the past, free from the burden of the future. How many Christians I know today who simply can't enjoy the moment just because they're all wrapped up in the urgency of how close the Tribulation Period is, how evil the world is going to become - or what they "Should" be doing in the meantime (see my series on Shoulds and Oughtas from earlier this month - by the way, last time I looked it was GOD who convicted people of sin, drew people into the kingdom, gave the increase - it's all through the Bible ...) that they can't even relax. How sad.

I believe the past has a purpose - to instruct us in what to do - or not to do. I don't believe that we have to shut the door on the past, even if it was horrible. Until we deal with the past, there is no moving forward and those behaviors and attitudes we got from our pasts will continue to plague us in the present. There is help to deal with the past in a very simple program called the Twelve Steps. Whether it's an addiction to a mood-altering substance (legal or otherwise) that has gripped us, or whether it is a compulsion to do something else - mine was fixing, manipulating, and controlling other people - the Twelve Steps is a very useful pathway to learning from and being free from the chains of the past.

So then we can live in the now.

I also believe that the future has its place and we can live in joyous anticipation of it without robbing ourselves of the moment-by-moment enjoyment of the presence of God in our lives. The Bible says that God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts and He calls out, "Abba Father!" Quite literally that means, "Wow, Daddy this is fun being with You - what's next!" That's not obsessing about the future. That's enjoying the present with the assurance of a hope and a future. That's different.

That's living in the now.

He who is the Eternal Now still calls out to each of our hearts - to tryst with us.
Not in the past. Not in the future.
Today.