Turning Pages
07/02/2014 13:04
It had been a quiet day at CareLink. I liked it being less busy so I could catch up on my work. I also had more time to spend with my volunteers. There was always plenty to do at work, so quiet days with few or no clients were great when they occurred. I invited my two volunteers, Dorothy and Maureen into my room to spend some time praying together. They liked the idea. We decided to read Psalm 33 together first – Psalm 33 being one of my favorite psalms. There was only one Bible between the three of us, so we thought we'd read a few verses each, before passing the Bible onto the person on our right. That way each of us would have a turn at reading.
I read the first few verses and passed it onto Maureen. Maureen read a few more and passed it onto Dorothy. Dorothy read a few verses and passed it back to me. All went well and we read through the entire psalm. I looked again at the ending of the psalm. Hmm…! It looked a bit different to what I remembered.
I turned a few pages back and then my mouth turned upwards in a cheery grin. “I see we’ve ended in Psalm 37” I said, laughing. It was so funny. We’d started at Psalm 33 but ended at Psalm 37! Too many pages had been turned (by accident) – and so we’d finished at a different psalm altogether. The three of us had a hearty laugh. We hadn’t even realised we’d moved into a different psalm since the message seemed to flow.
Turning pages. We do it all the time. Books need their pages turned so we can read them. Life’s pages also need turning, don’t they? Do I remain today on today’s page – or do I wander ahead into a couple of pages ahead? Very easy to do at times.
Am I living fully engaged in the present moment? Or am I turning the pages of my life too fast? Am I worrying about tomorrow’s difficulties and tomorrow’s troubles? Or perhaps doing it the other way around? I may be turning the pages backward? Looking too long at yesterday’s headlines? Pondering too long on yesterday’s failures?
Jesus said that sufficient unto the day was the trouble thereof. There is enough to keep me occupied today. Sometimes though, it is tempting to grab the wrong newspaper. Yesterdays or tomorrows headlines instead of todays?
How can I ensure I am living the present?
Here are a few questions to help me figure it out…
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Am I troubled about something that occurred in my past?
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Am I worrying about something that may happen in the future?
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Is my emotional equilibrium tied up to what’s happening today?
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Do I have goals and plans in place? Am I striving towards reaching them?
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If I die tomorrow, would I be glad at the way I spent my last day on earth?
The truth is that I can’t improve my quality of life by worrying over what’s past. Neither can I do so by being anxious over my future. What I do possess is the next second, the next minute and the next hour. They are in my hands. What I do have also is a God who cares about every detail of my life. A God I can trust implicitly.
