“You are the future of the church.”
“One day God is going to use you.”
“Once you graduate…”
“Once you complete…”
“Once you…” Fill in the blank.
We live in a world of constant “maybe” and “one day,” and, honestly, it bothers me. Why are we so impatient about a microwave, yet willing to wait years before chasing our dreams and callings? We want everything instantly, but when it comes to what matters, we convince ourselves that we have to wait. Why are we so stuck in the future when we could live in the now?
Call to ministry
When I was 15 years old, I felt a call to ministry on my life. I didn’t know exactly what that meant or have my future figured out. But I knew that if God had placed something on my heart, I didn’t want to wait for the perfect time. I started pursuing it.
As I began taking steps toward what I believed God was calling me to, people encouraged me. Many times, they would say, “One day God is going to use you.” I appreciated that people believed in me, but there was something about that statement that bothered me. Why are we so caught up in what a person’s impact will be one day when we can already see opportunities for them to make an impact now?
We do this with almost everything. We tell ourselves that we will pursue our dreams once we have more time, take opportunities once we feel qualified and do the things we’ve been thinking about once everything falls into place.
But what if everything never falls into place?
There will always be another reason to wait.
Paying attention to present
The problem isn’t having goals for the future. Looking ahead, planning and preparing are important. The problem comes when we become so focused on our future that we stop paying attention to our present. Sometimes we think we need to become a different version of ourselves before we can do something meaningful. We think we need more experience, confidence, money, knowledge or time before we can make a difference.
But I have learned that growth often happens because we start before we feel ready.
When I began pursuing ministry, I was not suddenly equipped with everything I needed. The opportunities I was given challenged me to communicate better, take responsibility, make decisions and handle things when they didn’t go according to plan. Some experiences were exciting, while others were difficult and showed me how much I still had to learn.
But that was the point.
I wouldn’t have grown into the person I am becoming if I had waited until I already was that person.
Shifting focus
Maybe there is something you’ve been putting off because you keep telling yourself “one day.” Maybe you’re waiting until you feel ready or qualified. There is nothing wrong with preparing, but at some point, preparation has to become action.
We can spend so much time thinking about the life we want someday that we forget to live the life we have today. The future is important, but it is uncertain. We don’t know exactly what opportunities we will have or how our lives will change. We can make plans, but we cannot guarantee what will happen.
What we do have is today.
Today, there are people who need encouragement, opportunities to serve, relationships to invest in and dreams to pursue. There are ways we can make a difference that don’t require us to wait for some imaginary future version of ourselves.
I don’t know exactly what my future in ministry will look like or where I’ll be five or 10 years from now. But I don’t want to spend so much time wondering about what I’ll do one day that I miss what I can do today.
Maybe we need to stop asking, “What will I do someday?” Maybe we should start asking, “What can I do with what I’ve been given right now?”
Someday will become today, and then today will become yesterday. If we spend our lives waiting for the right moment, we may look back and realize we were so focused on when life would begin that we missed that it already had.
So dream about the future. Make plans. Set goals. Pray about where you’re going. But don’t live there.
Your life isn’t waiting somewhere in the future. It’s happening right now.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Lydia Redd and originally published by Kentucky Today.
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