Life spins fast. In a few decades, this moment of time could be frozen, the motivation for you to turn to a person you love and ask them, “Do you remember when…?”
If you’re anywhere close to average, your time on earth will probably follow a pattern of events and markers similar to your fellow Americans. Entering the workforce, marriage, children, and aging usually come to mind. As we grow older and move through life, there will be moments that we look back on and relive, either with a smile on our face or with tears threatening to spill.
These are the moments that make us feel alive.
Yet, what if we don’t truly live them until they’re gone?
We get so caught up in the next step, the next day, the next thing that we forget to truly live NOW. We rush from moment to moment, never taking the time to simply breathe and appreciate it for what it is. In our hustling and hurrying, sometimes we only truly live a moment out in retrospect.
This isn’t how life was created to be lived. We may number our weeks, months, and years, but God numbers our days, our moments, the very breaths we take. We focus on the long run, and walk blindly through the moments that form our lives and futures.
Moses understood this. In Psalm 90:12, he asked God,
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
We were never created to only appreciate how beautiful and crucial moments are after they’re gone. Time shouldn’t be lived through a “remember when” years later. We were designed to be fully aware of the vivid life we’ve been given, and thrive in it as it happens, not in an afterthought.
So slow down, stop for a minute. Look around. Smile, because you could be looking back on this moment in a few years. Realize that even if you’re longing for something that seems far off, what you have right now is still GOOD because God is good constantly.
KELVEY OLIVIA VANDER HART 