Bringing It All Back Home

Tempest tossed
Worn and weary
at the mercy of the cruel elements
without an anchor and
lost, hopelessly lost

I remember one particular day - sunny and autumnal, brisk and wonderful
flying through the mountains as a passenger of a sport utility vehicle.
I remember no matter what was going on around me and outside of me
I couldn't shake the doom and gloom and depression.
I should be thrilled, enraptured with the splendor and majestic beauty around me.

I sat despondent ... focused intently on the rearview mirror.
For miles and miles we sat in silence as I watched things pass me from behind.
I realized, with small tears forming in the corners of my eyes that
this was how
I had been 'doing life.'
So focused on the past that I was sacrificing and losing the moment of now --
the present which is in fact a present, I left unwrapped and unopened in the
backseat on the floor.

It took a few years and a real encounter with the God of the universe to help
me to really get this...to really understand how precious the present is.
With His loving hands wrapped around my feeble ones, we began to unwrap
each day. Each day there was something new and wonderful to explore, enjoy, appreciate.

And even now, it seems most days I am forgetting this  ...
I pull the covers over my head and desire nothing more but to go back to sleep ...
my comfort, my solace, my hiding place ... sleep
my 'friend' sleep.
Then I had a vision the other morning enter my thoughts and my mind.
Now I LOVE to snuggle up to my dog - he keeps me warm on nights when
my husband is away. Well the other day I was thinking about this unhealthy
relationship I have been having with sleep, and an image covered the window
of my consciousness ... an image of me cuddled up and instead of to my warm
and wonderful dog ... I was sleeping with a big
green ogre-looking monster.

Had I again allowed depression to rob me of my days?
And the answer was very clear. I had. I had been 'cuddling' up in my bed
and sleeping for hours and hours and unable to get up and get out of this bed
because it was so comfortable and I was literally ruing my days and I knew
what I had to do. Stop looking at life as skull-drudgery and misery and
I had to kick some ugly-ogre-monster butt.
I had to slay this ugly beast, and see the present for
what it is and get OUT of bed and toss off my blankets and UNWRAP
my day again with my Lord.
His strong and wonderful hands wrapped again around my weak and feeble ones.
With God all things are possible
and without Christ we are all men most miserable.

It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. 

They are new every morning; 

great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.

-Lamentations 3:22-23 The Amplified Bible

Thank you Lord for the Present.