Live Now: Edit Later

By David Ryser

Pray I never die till I pass away.  Pray I never die lost in yesterday.  (From the song I’m a Wannabe by Metanoya)

My friend Tim and his family recently traveled through one of their favorite places in the country.  They were enjoying the scenery and taking pictures to record the memories of their vacation.  While driving through a particularly majestic place, Tim noticed that members of his family were busy reviewing the pictures they had taken earlier in the trip and deciding which photos to keep.  Concerned they would miss the beauty of their current surroundings, Tim encouraged his family to experience and enjoy the view.

He said, “Live now.  Edit later.”

The last ten years of my life have been spent largely in a time of intense introspection.  This has not been due to some narcissistic self-absorption on my part; but rather, it has been a time of revelation and healing.  God has walked with me through my past in order to prepare me for my future…a future He would not even allow me to speak with Him about during most of this part of the journey.  I’ve heard it said that God is called I AM because He is a God of the now, not a God of the past or of the future.  I once listened to a preacher say that God is called I AM because He is in the present, not in the past (making Him I WAS) or in the future (making Him I WILL BE).  It made for some really good preaching.

And like a lot of what we call good preaching, it’s a bunch of baloney.

The truth is that the omnipresence of God means that He is not only everywhere, He is also everywhen.  God is inside of time…past, present, and future…and He is also outside of time.   And all at the same time.  The reason we typically connect with Him in the present is not because He is not in the past or the future, it is because we are not in the past or the future.

Usually.

What about when God takes us by the hand and leads us back into our past?  (Or when He shows us our future?)  I can say from experience that we are very much connected with God…what He is showing to us and saying to us…when we walk together into the past.

One should never confuse connected with comfortable.

A walk with God through the past can be a wonderful and redemptive…if often painful…experience filled with insight and renovation.  I have discovered that the past can be a marvelous teacher.  But the past can also become a terrible prison where a person can become trapped for years in a cycle of remorse and shame.  At some point healing should come.  The season of intense introspection and death to self comes to an end, and a season of restoration and resurrection replaces it.  We return to the present with expectancy about our future.

“Live now.  Edit later.”

Tim’s words rang out in my spirit when I heard them.  It was as if God was speaking to me about an imminent change of season in my life.  No longer would I concentrate on where I had been.  My attention has turned to what He is saying to me in the present.  I’m living more in the moment while at the same time experiencing a renewed excitement about where my journey with God will lead me next…without being unduly concerned about where my destination is or when I will arrive.

It’s a great way to live.

And I plan to experience this season to the fullest.  To see the sights and hear the sounds.  To take in all God is showing me.  To listen to all He is saying to me.  To sing along with the song He is singing to me.  To walk down the path He has laid down for me.  To laugh.  To love.  To dance.

For as long as this season lasts.

Because I know that as time passes, there will come another season of editing…a season where that which is unwanted and no longer needed will be removed.  But that is then, and this is now.  This is the time for me to embark on the next adventure.  To see and experience new things and make some new memories.  To take a few “pictures” along the way.  It’s the season to live.

I’m going to live now…and edit later.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com