Live in the present.
That’s the conventional wisdom. How often have you heard that advice? Looking back leads to regret, looking forward results in worry. TODAY is all we have, it’s what we can control, it’s the only place we can live.
Pretty good guidance, right? Except—living exclusively in the present can lead to an awfully shallow existence. How to we learn if we ignore the past? How do we prepare if we ignore the future? I pondered this dilemma a few days ago as I wrote What Would You Change? and my latest newsletter article about anticipating Christmas.
My friend Jon Swanson is currently doing a wonderful Advent series over at my second-favorite blog, 300wordsaday. His reflections reveal Advent as a wonderful solution to my dilemma.
Advent is the practice of using the days prior to Christmas as a time of preparation. We remember the stories and the characters that surrounded Jesus’ birth, and we look forward to the hope He promised.
What’s cool, though, is that there’s no sense of reliving the past or rushing into the future. The whole point is to savor each day by bringing greater meaning to the season. The recollection and anticipation of Advent actually calls attention to the precious nature of each moment.
That makes a lot of sense to me. I want to live in the present as fully as possible. That means learning from experience, preparing with hope, and treating each day as a treasured gift from God.
How can you use the experience of Advent to focus on today?
Please leave a comment here.
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