The Past

During a dental visit once, I noticed that the office was stuck in the 1980s. The dentist used fairly up-to-date equipment for the actual dental work, but the office lacked any semblance of modern décor. The 1980s-style phone sat on the receptionist’s desk next to the cardboard record cards and spiral schedule book. As I sat in the waiting room, I heard an electric typewriter reminisce of high school typing class. All of this happened within the walls of a modified 1980s ranch house.

This visit reminded me of pre-internet, actually pre-computer, times when instant access meant using the telephone. They also involved more face-to-face conversation in what now seems to be a much simpler time.

The Future

After leaving the dentist that day, I visited my grandma who was living with my mom. While visiting her brought back fond childhood memories, my potential future also grabbed my attention. I know genetics only loads the gun and life choices pull the trigger, but I still wondered how much of myself I saw when I looked at my grandmother and received only a distant stare and sometimes an irrelevant comment.

Will I someday walk in circles with my hands doing what they did 40 years ago? Are my kids facing a future where they must care for me as I cared for them when they were young? Am I going to one day forget half of my life and only remember bits and pieces that make no sense?

The Present

In just one hour, thoughts of the past and my potential future collided in a way that propelled me to actively consider how I got where I am today and where I seem to be headed. The positives and negatives flooded my thoughts, and I began to consider my created reality and what needs to happen for me live an increasingly deliberate present.

God’s Promises

Knowing the timelessness of God and that He was, is, and always will be (Revelation 1:8) brings a sense of purpose to my past and a hope for an abundant future. Studying His promises, which extend through time and still lives for you and me to grasp today, creates intense motivation to increasingly know His presence in my present.

“Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18-19, AMP)

These words encourage me to not linger on the past with its mistakes and could-have-beens. They help prevent an obsession with a future that only He knows and that I must simply let Him hold in His hands. They also refocus my present on what He’s doing now and on what He wants me to focus. In bringing these promises to mind, God re-establishes my heart where He wants it