Faith Venture

I was on a business trip last week and lucky to blog much at all. But there was another interesting dinner conversation where we got into the subject of living in the present. Living in the present is a learned skill for most of us. But it is an ancient and important spiritual practice. Jesus addressed this concept recorded in Matthew 6. You can read the entire passage from verses 26 through 34, but He summarized, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

This time of the year could be very stressful for me. It’s a demanding time for business travel. I am responsible for assigning soccer referees for a half-dozen clubs and/or leagues, not to mention recruiting, assigning and managing about 150 referees who will come to Sidney Mothers Day weekend for our soccer tournament. Then there are other responsibilities, not to mention keeping my wife happy. But years of contemplation and practice have cured me of constant worrying. I look at the future, of course. I plan, watch out for obstacles or opportunities. But that is controlled thought. When I start to worry if I’ll get everything done, I just divert my attention to what needs to be done. You write everything that needs to be done on a list (I use a computer program called Thinking Rock plus plain old pen and paper in a little notebook) then decide what tasks I’ll do right now to tackle these things one at a time. You discover that being aware and focusing on the present means the future will take care of itself.

Or, as one of my childhood heroes–Alfred E. Newman of Mad Magazine fame–used to say, “What? Me worry?” Or as Jesus said better, God will take care of our future. Let’s just take care of the present.

Gary

Tags: Christianity

This entry was posted on May 7, 2008 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Christianity, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.