How to Get There

by: Eric Muhr

After my brother finished his first year of college, I drove to Kansas to pick him up and bring him home for the summer. It’s a long drive from here to there, so I’d planned for the shortened week I’d face on my return. There were so many things to get done, and time, as always, was on the move. It was hard.

Hard to breathe.

Time was slipping into the future, and I couldn’t keep up. This in spite of how fast I was driving.

Looking back, I can see that I survived. I caught up. And then I got ahead. Which feels pretty good to think about. Until I realize that I’m stuck here. In the future. Thinking, planning, strategizing, worrying. Is this living?

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Jesus asks. Later, he offers this advice: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

It’s advice that makes sense, but I find it’s almost impossible to let go of my plans, my concerns. God calls me to live in the now and experience life as He created it — one day at a time. Instead, I race ahead, looking to what comes next, concerned by my fear of what may or may not occur. I miss the treasure in the moment.

God, help me to grow up. Teach me to calm down. Guide me in love, for I desire peace. But I don’t know how to get there.