Why I Refuse To Just Live In the Moment

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I am sure that when I say I don’t want to just live in the moment, it will surprise some people.

After all, aren’t Christians supposed to enjoy the moment God has given us?

Absolutely.

I want to be present with my family. I want to enjoy the little things. I don’t want to spend my life worrying about tomorrow or regretting yesterday.

But I also don’t want to become so consumed with today that I lose sight of eternity.

That’s the tension I think we’ve lost.

As Christians, we are called to live fully in the moment without living only for the moment.

We have a past God has redeemed, a present God has entrusted to us, and an eternity we are living toward.

What Does It Mean to Live in the Moment as a Christian?

While I don’t believe that Christian women should embrace the concept of self-care, positive affirmations, and hygge, I don’t believe that the idea of living in the moment is entirely wrong.

I just believe that we need to define it better if we, as Christians, are going to talk about this.

For example:

1. Live in today without living in yesterday.

I can live fully in today because I don’t have to keep living in my past.

Maybe you’re still replaying something you did years ago.

Maybe you still define yourself by who you were before Christ.

Maybe you’ve confessed the sin, but you keep punishing yourself for it.

But God isn’t asking you to keep living in a past He has already redeemed.

God has made me a new creation, and all of that stuff I did before is forgiven. Gone. Wiped away. Thrown in the Sea of Forgetfulness.

Therefore, as a new creation in Christ Jesus, I embrace my new identity and choose to live today as the child of God that I am!

2. Live in today without constantly borrowing trouble from tomorrow.

We often borrow tomorrow’s troubles before tomorrow ever arrives.

Jesus said, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34) And that is so true.

I’ve lived this way for years. During all my years on the mission field, I’ve never been without food, clothing, shelter, or God’s provision…

I don’t want to constantly worry about tomorrow: what it will bring, what I will eat, what my kids will wear, how I’ll pay my bills.

David said, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging for bread.” Psalm 37:25

3. Be present with the people God has given you.

Sometimes living in the moment simply means putting down the phone and being where your feet are.

My kids deserve me now.

My husband deserves me now.

They deserve all of me—not the distracted version of me who is constantly checking notifications, commenting, liking, and responding to people hundreds or thousands of miles away.

So yes, I want to live in the moment.

But I don’t want to get stuck here.

But What If This Moment Isn’t All There Is?

God gave us this moment.

But He also gave us something far greater than this moment.

He gave us eternity.

For much of Christian history, believers lived with a strong awareness that the physical world wasn’t all there was. They thought about heaven, eternity, judgment, resurrection, and the presence of God in everyday life.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve become much more focused on what we can see, touch, experience, and accomplish right now.

And I wonder if we’ve lost something because of it.

We Used to Sing More About Heaven

I love the old hymns – in particular turn-of-the-century hymns and mid-century hymns of the Pentecostal Renewal and quartets.

They sang about heaven so much!

There was a palpable longing for heaven and a constant looking forward to eternity. I truly believe that they knew how to both live in the moment and live for eternity at the same time.

And this is what is sorely lacking in the church today.

The Question My Dad Taught Me to Ask

I remember well a question my dad would often ask when faced with an important decision that he couldn’t find a clear answer for in Scripture.

“How does this matter for eternity?”

This question would automatically put that situation into perspective for him, because if it mattered for eternity, it needed his full attention.

However, if it was going to serve as a distraction from His God-given purpose, he knew he couldn’t go in that direction.

This question has come to my heart hundreds of times throughout the years.

Here’s the metric:

Don’t Let Today Become Your Whole World

We shouldn’t embrace today so tightly that we lose sight of eternity.

We shouldn’t get so caught up in today that we can’t see heaven.

We shouldn’t allow ourselves to become so myopic that we forget that this world is not our home.

We are ambassadors here.

We are citizens of a city whose builder and maker is God.

So no, I don’t want to live just for this moment.

I want to enjoy today.

I want to love my family well today.

I want to be present today.

I want to receive God’s gifts with gratitude today.

But I also want to live today with eternity in my heart.

Because this moment will pass.

One day I’ll be old and grey, and I may barely remember the moment I’m living in right now.

But eternity will still be before me.

So I want to live for it.

I want to invest in it.

I want my heart to be consumed by it.

I want my passions to be seized by it.

Because this isn’t all there is.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” — Matthew 6:33

Live fully today.

But don’t forget eternity.