For most of us, English grammar is a challenge. It is particularly difficult when we start considering the various tenses associated with our language. By most counts, there are 12 different tenses for English verbs. The easy ones are the simple present, simple past and simple future. They are relatively easy to understand, but as I heard in church this morning, much harder to live through.

Dr. Mickey Klink was speaking in my service today and I really appreciated his thoughts on living in the present. He took us to I Corinthians 7 and had us notice that three different times in this passage Paul exhorts the reader to “remain in the situation he is in,” “retain the place in life that the Lord has assigned you,” and “as responsible to God, remain in the situation God has called you to.”

We might reword that thought and state that we are called, as a response to God’s claim on our lives, to confidently live in the present. Live in the present circumstances of our lives…our jobs, our family dynamics, our neighbors, our financial situation, our state of health or sickness, and our age. We are enjoined to live or abide, or remain in those circumstances, not just endure until they are over.

Too often that is my “MO.” If I hit a patch of gravel along my life’s journey, I tend to just redouble my prayer life with an urgent request to get it over with. I pray, “Lord, please help me to endure…to get through this.” I am just not very good at living in the present.

As I type this, I am sitting at the only flat surface in my 700 ft. apartment. Unless I want to balance my computer on my knees, this is the only place to work. The kitchen is about 8 square feet in size and after the coffee pot sits on the counter, there is no more room for any other appliance. The coat closet has been adapted into a can cupboard, the kitchen table houses the printer, the chest of drawers is also a make shift safe and hat rack.

I can’t wait for my house to be finished so I can move and have some semblance of normalcy! Clearly I have not learned to live in the present.

But this week, I am going to camp on that thought of REMAINING…ABIDING in the circumstances God has called me to. This is His assignment. He has a plan and since I really do trust Him, I am going to work very hard to live in the present. God has a plan for me in the midst of this circumstance and I don’t want to miss it. How about you?

By His Grace and for His Glory,
Sherry L. Worel