Right Here, Right Now

Have you ever heard someone say “I was born in the wrong era?” I must confess, I have said this. I have made this comment because I sometimes have a yearning for a simpler life. For me, the ideal would have been around the turn of the century. Not the last one, the one before. The Victorian Era with all the beautiful dresses, the lazy Sunday afternoons along the riverbank complete with meaningful conversations. A slower life, with fewer distractions. That’s when I should have been born. It suits my personality better.

Actually, if I would look honestly at that era, I would see that it had its own set of challenges. It wasn’t just sunny days and beautiful people. If I had lived in that day, it’s likely that one or more of my sons would have served in WWI or died of the influenza.  From a distance, life in another time might look easier, simpler. But no time in history was without problems and difficulties.

And that brings up the real question. Why was I born in this era? Why am I alive at this very moment?

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”Ephesians 2:10(ESV)

If the things God designed me to do for Him were prepared beforehand then it sounds like I was meant to be on earth at exactly this time.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” – Psalm 139:16 (ESV)

God knew when he created each of us just what we were ordained to do. He already had our days planned out for us so that we would accomplish what He designed us to do.  He told Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5) that He had appointed him as a prophet to the nations while Jeremiah was still in his mother’s womb.

So why are we tempted to long for a different life? Maybe it’s not a different era, but a different set of circumstances that we could have in this life. Maybe a different location, maybe a different family, or maybe a different set of skills or abilities.

It’s easy to focus on the difficulties of living in the 21st century. We face things that seem so much harder than those who have lived before us faced. We long for less stress and more time. But it is all an illusion. Each generation has been prepared and equipped by God to accomplish His works in the circumstances where they find themselves.

We were ordained to be living right now. We have a purpose to fulfill in these days and God determined that we were the generation to do this work. What we have is today. This day, to bloom right where God has planted us, to be faithful to Him in this time that He has ordained for us.

What can you do today to further God’s kingdom? What can you do today to bring Him glory?

Ask Him.