Tearfund Lent Devotional Day 37

Liberated from arrival

‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1, NIV)

So often we are waiting for something. A solution to be imparted. A breakthrough to occur. A dream to be fulfilled.

Yet we can be so desperate to cross that threshold of arrival that we miss what is happening in the in-between. We're so desperate to reach the promised land that we fail to see the life that is held in the wilderness. We're so obsessed with the product that we miss the process.

Life happens at the speed of now. It is happening today, not tomorrow. If we say, 'I'll be happy/enlightened/content when I get [x],' then we'll miss life.

We need to learn to live in the grace of the present, not the unforgiving unreality of 'if' and 'then' and 'only' and 'when'. We need to be liberated from arrival.

It is easier said than done. But we are where we are, so we might as well look around and see what joys or truths it might hold.

Life is unfolding, and the invitation is open.

God, help me to live in the now. Help me to see what you have placed in front of me, rather than looking always at the distance. Amen.

Gideon Heugh

Gideon writes for Tearfund and is a poet and environmentalist