We live in a tension. We’re supposed to I think. I think health comes when we live in a constant tension between the now and the later. No, I’m not talking about those candies that are way too hard to even eat. I’m talking about the fact that we are often in a position of balancing what we’re doing right this very moment: school, current job, looking for a job, getting married, having children, depressed…fill in your own blank…with what we’re looking toward on the horizon: starting a business, moving cross country, running a marathon, getting in shape, retiring…fill in your own blank…
Right now I find myself in the very center of this tension. I’m looking ahead toward planting a neighborhood church in downtown Vancouver in 2011, but I’m currently passionately committed to my work with Renovatus church. Now…later. East Vancouver…downtown Vancouver. Suburbia…neighborhood. I’m doing my best to value the tension and to find value in the tension.
Jesus preached that tension didn’t he? When he spoke about the kingdom he would say things like the kingdom of heaven can be seen in someone who gives his money to the poor while in the same breath saying that the kingdom of heaven is something that you’ll one day experience when your time on earth is done. He spoke very clearly about joining the kingdom today while at the same time saying that the kingdom will be experienced later. Now and not yet. Now and later. Tension. Jesus would say that the kingdom is at hand, which is translated usually as “near” or “here”. In other words, now and not now.
Some people are stuck in the now. All they can see is their current struggle, their current excitement, their current hill. Your job is your life. Your current struggle is all consuming, everything. You can’t see past today.
Others are stuck in the future. This is where Jess and I tend to land. You’re always looking toward the next big hurdle, the next hill to conquer. Your job right now is an afterthought to the job that you’ll one day have. Your kids are just babies, but once they’re toddlers they’ll be a lot fun. You tend to devalue today because you’re always looking toward tomorrow.
Neither is completely healthy. Health comes when balancing the tension between now and later. Proverbs warns against worrying about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough trouble of its own: all we have is today, so we’ve got to find the joy in it. But Jeremiah speaks of God knowing the plans he has for you, plans for great things: God’s taking you somewhere, somewhere beyond today.
Tension.
And that’s why life is all about Now and Laters.