Live for today. The past is over. Tomorrow hasn’t come.
Depression drives the bus if you focus on what could have been, or what happened in the past that is now long gone.
Fear drives the bus if you focus on what might come.
There is nothing you can do to change what happened in the past. You cannot bring back your loved ones now gone. Words said in haste cannot be reversed. Mistakes made cannot be undone.
There are no guarantees that tomorrow will be as you feared. And no guarantees that you will have a life you always desired.
You only have today. Today you can start again. You can try again to be better. You can focus on what your goals are for a better tomorrow.
If you don’t get what you want, it may be that it isn’t the best for you. If you fall again, pick yourself up and start over.
There is no excuse that you can make to not move forward. There are no reasons to be locked in a cycle of fear.
You have control over your own mindset. No one else can do that for you.
Victorious…
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl, as hard as his life was in a concentration camp, kept his mind on what was most important. It helped him to overcome the obstacles of his situation. He lived in hope of seeing his family once more.
He survived. Then he moved forward after the experience. Even after he discovered that his family was gone.
Admiral Stockdale lived through torture and lack as a prisoner of war in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. He wasn’t certain that he would make it our alive.
Yet he, too survived. His experiences made him stronger.
Strength…
You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose —with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality,
whatever they might be.
Admiral James Stockdale
What gave these men the strength to carry on? What gave them the strength to live to see another day? To manage the hardships they were enduring at that moment?
They had the determination to keep their mindset on the eventual outcome. Their determination to live was strong. Never once did they doubt that they would make it out.
Even Corey Tenboom’s sister made it out. She kept her mind strong and her faith alive in a God Who loved her. She loved even her enemies. All the way to the day she died in the concentration camp.
What is this all about?
It is about growth.
Life is so much more than the past. It is so much greater than our worst fears.
If there breath in our bodies, we have the chance to reach for the stars, to help those less fortunate, and lean on Someone beyond ourselves.
There is never a mistake that we cannot learn from. There is never an experience that will not help us grow. When our bodies hurt and our strength is nearly gone, we will never be given more than we can handle.
Now is the time…
Be at peace. Do not look forward in fear to the changes in life; rather look to them with full hope that as they arise, God, whose very own you are, will lead you safely through all things. And when you cannot stand it, God will carry you in His arms. Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you then and every day. He will either shield you from suffering, or give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imagination.”
St Francis de Sales
Now is the time. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Only the present.
It is not the time to dwell on what might come.
If the bus is going in the wrong direction, get off.
Now is the time you have. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow.
If you dwell on the past or future, you will never see what is right in front of you. You will miss the opportunities to interact with your family, your friends, you relationships. You will miss the person on the sidewalk who is hurting and needs a kind word. The cashier or stranger next to you on an airplane will be ignored.
And a kind smile ceases to cross the lips of one so preoccupied with self.
Live for the moment, the present moment.
Live for today. It is the only moment you will ever have again.