My daughter, Kayla Morgan, recently wrote about living in the moment, not for the moment. I want to share her post with you because I think leaders, both young and old alike, can gain perspective from what she has to say. I know I did.
Life is pretty good right now. I’m living in the city that I love, with people I love even more, working an internship that is stretching me and challenging me, and I’m eating a lot of really good food.
But here’s the thing about me. I’m future minded. To a fault. I plan and I dream, and I expect things to go exactly as I hope, and I’m crushed when that doesn’t happen. I get so caught up in what the future holds that I forget to breathe in the beauty of what’s happening right in front of me, including the experiences I’ve already had this summer. I live FOR moments. FOR my future career, future spouse, future children and future life.
I had an earth shattering moment a few weeks ago, and I thought I would share it because there might be someone out there who is as focused on their future as I am.
During my sophomore year of college, a dear friend of mine called me out on the way that I devote all of my attention to the future. She reminded me that what I’m doing right now is good and right and that the years really do fly by. She told me I need to slow down. Stop naming my future children, planning out the details of a job that I’m years away from getting and relish in the opportunity that I have right in front of me.
She told me to live IN the moment.
I was attending the kickoff of Summer In The City at Passion City Church, and we were in the second or third song of the opening worship set. I was standing next to old and new friends in a room full of college-aged kids with hands raised, praising their Creator. I stood there smiling because of the beauty of what was happening in that room, and for some reason I couldn’t get the advice I had been given a year and a half ago out of my head. I began praying as I sang. Specifically I asked God to allow me to live IN this moment.
The song ended, and the student pastor took the stage. He grabbed a mic and the first words out of his mouth were, “Don’t miss this moment.”
For me, this was affirmation that I’m right where I’m supposed to be. I need to stop living FOR moments, and start living IN moments. I need to passionately and diligently love where I am. I need to invest in people, invest my talents, and invest my time. I need to soak up every second during this season of my life rather than living for a future that could change in a heartbeat, and that I have little control over.
Essentially, if I’m living FOR moments, I’m living FOR me and my future, and not FOR Jesus.
If you know me at all, you know that The Office is my all time favorite show. There’s a quote in the final episode of the series from Andy Bernard that goes, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” This is it, y’all. We’re in the good old days. I’m challenging myself to relish in the beauty of this season, in this city, and in this moment. And to love the heck out of every second of this life I’ve been so blessed with.
So here’s to letting go of the death grip I have on my future plans and my next steps.
Here’s to allowing God to breathe patience into a girl who wants her future to happen ASAP. And here’s to living IN not FOR. I’m passionately waiting.
“God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.”Lamentations 3:25 MSG
Photo credit: Irene Davila via unsplash.com
