NOW

by Cindy Frauenheim

As one year finishes and another opens up before us, we look at our lives and at history from a step farther back. Perhaps it’s because we have a little break from the normal schedule. For me, a few things are causing me to look at life in a larger way. I am busy getting out invitations for my parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary. What a milestone! I am so thankful for them. Mark and I just celebrated our own 20^th. And just this week our family spent a few days away at a cabin with a dear friend and her family – a friend that I met 25 years ago in the dorms at college! What a special time to catch up with each other, and enjoy watching all our kids play together. We can’t believe how long it’s been since we met –wasn’t that just yesterday?

My daughter asked for a CD this year for Christmas (“Ending is Beginning” by Downhere). Her favorite song is “Here I Am”. We listened to the CD as we drove to our cabin after a fun day in the snow, a magnificent sunset now before us turning the snow covered scene orange. One of the songs, called “Don’t Miss Now” really convicts me to not focus on my trials, or my plans, or the things that aren’t the way I want them to be. Here is a bit of the lyrics:

All that you're working for
Could blind you to the treasures all around you
So don't miss these moments, please
The joy before the crown you seek

Time passes. Sometimes we want it to slow down, and sometimes we wish it would fly by. Perhaps it’s been a hard year, full of pain and difficulty, and you’re ready for a new chapter. Perhaps you’re afraid of the what the coming year will bring. Or maybe you’re excited and anticipating a year of great things, even scheduling for the year ahead as you break open that new weekly planner. Our God, however, is a God of the daily. He tells us to live one day at time, and always to be thankful. He has given us so many blessings, even in the midst of hardship.

As I am writing this on New Year’s Eve, I just received a very difficult email. One of my son’s sixth grade classmates (since kindergarten) tragically lost her father this morning. The song says ‘don’t miss now’, but I am sure she and her family would really rather miss the ‘now’ that this day holds. We must cling to our Father and his promises, and cherish the treasures he gives us. Yes, our ultimate reward lies on the other side of this life as we know it, but let us not look ahead – or backwards – so much that we miss what He is doing right now. I know that as much as this young girl is hurting, she does have many joys to remember of her dad, and the godly legacy he left. She has Christ, and his Holy Spirit as her comforter.

"So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." John 16:22

"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” John 17:13

"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy…" 1 Peter 1:8

It is not our circumstances or the good things God gives that bring us true joy, but Christ himself. All else is temporary. While we are to be thankful for the many blessings of this life, we must daily let Christ rule in our hearts and fill us with his joy today, even right now.

Lord, thank you that you desire for us to have your joy in us now. That is really incomprehensible. Your joy is so far above what we think of as joy – and you fill us with that joy! Help me never to confuse my happiness or comfort with joy. I need you to remind me daily to look to you. Give me eyes to see your treasures, and to see you at work, rather than to focus on me. And Lord, please hold the Machado family in your loving arms. May they have your joy even in the midst of their pain today.