DON’T WAIT YOUR LIFE AWAY

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

 Hi. Each of us needs to be careful that we don't waste our life by waiting. By waiting, I mean worrying, wishing, and wanting. Worrying- we wait by worrying in this way and that we have some challenge, some future ideas, some future issue that lies out there, and we extract ourselves from every day from the present because we're worrying about it.

We're thinking over and over again about what might we do? What could we do? Now, of course, all of us have this experience in which the thing we worry about never actually comes to be. Maybe it does in a little bit, but most of our worry is what I call happening in the fake future. It's this thing we imagine but isn't actual.

The other way we wait our life away is through wishing I wish that the past was different. I wish that this result would happen in the future. I wish I could get X, Y, or z. Wishing is particularly difficult now because all of the malls are closed and there's no more wishing fountains to throw a quarter in and wish something happened to you.

But it's this reminder to us that we can miss our everyday life because we are wishing we're wishing for some other future or some other past or some other present. We miss the life we're in. Finally, there's what I call the "onceing". Once I get to X, once I get this promotion, once I do this, then I will X, Y, and Z.

Simple example- done this plenty of times myself. Once I get to next week, that's when I'm going to eat healthy. Once I get to next week, that's when I'm gonna sleep better. Once I get through this, then I'll pay more attention at home. Once I get this amount of money, then I'll be happy. And in all those instances, we are wasting our life through waiting because what we're waiting for is some future event.

And after that future event, then we'll decide to live for real. We're in the series Easter Reverb, and we're looking at how there are reverberations from Easter that transform our life. And today what I want to talk to you about is I want to talk to you about three mental shifts that you can take that will help you not waste your life through waiting, but rather begin to live towards it this very day.

The first one is that we want to take on the mindset of a builder. Because when we have a mindset of a builder, we are both thinking about where we're going, but we're activating ourselves in the present. The other thing that I want to see is that we want to dwell. Now. We want to dwell in the present because we have a purpose here and now.

And then the final thing is to recognize that each of us go through different seasons of life. And so we wanna lean into those seasons. Peter writing to the early church in Turkey says that they are to be living stones, that Jesus is the cornerstone, that they are living stones, and that they are being built up into a spiritual house, and that they have this purpose and this role that they are to be this royal priesthood.

That they are to offer spiritual sacrifices that they are to live reflecting God to the world and the world to God. They have a purpose and an identity. They aren't just supposed to wait their life away, wait for something to happen in the future. Rather they're supposed to live here and now. So this whole cornerstone business is this concept of once you get the cornerstone in place for a foundation, now you're ready to build it.

And I think that having a building mindset is really helpful for us because what it does is it makes us think about where we're going and then informs the actions we want to take in the present. My wife has been remodeling our kitchen. She's doing a wonderful job and I'm thankful for it, but she has a vision.

She has a sense of, "Hey, in the future, this is what it will be like." And therefore that doesn't just leave her waiting around for it to. Arrive, but rather she's being purposeful. She's beginning with an end in mind. And so she's repairing the walls and patching the walls, and she's painting the molding and painting the ceiling and painting the walls and matching the trim and putting in new hardware.

All of these things are informing her present because she's acting like a builder. She's not just waiting for something to change. She's building towards that change. Similarly, what God tells us is that we are this priesthood. We are being built into this new space and this new relationship in which we as a people reflect God to the world.

And so while it is true that we are a people, as Christian people, that we wait for the future in which what God has accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus, he will accomplish for the whole world the restoration of the whole thing. That doesn't extract us from our every day, but rather, we live now as a people who have the future in mind.

We live in anticipation of this restoration. So this week, as you may find yourself checking out and waiting your life away, instead say, no, no, I, I have to have a mind shift. And that mind shift is I want to be a builder. I'm going to be purposeful about now as I have the future in mind, and I'm gonna head in that direction. So the second thing is about dwelling in the now. And in this passage, Peter essentially tells them, Hey, yes, because of Jesus, there's this future. God is going to complete the future of restoration. But what I want you to be is I want you to be this priesthood now.

This is your role in the world. And so this doesn't extract us from the world, but rather it encourages us to be present. Now, there are different forms of the church or Christianity or early thought that did the opposite of this. So Gnosticism believed that the spiritual was good, the physical was bad, and what it did is it left people hating the physical and waiting their life away in hopes to experience the spiritual. Sometimes people can feel this way about heaven, this world is awful, and so I just want to get to heaven. As long as I get to heaven, then I'm out of here. And you know, with the message that God gives to human beings is no, no, no.

The physical, this life, this world. It's broken, but it's beautiful. There's elements of the future and of creation in it. And so what I want you to do as my faithful people is I want you to lean in. I want you to dwell in the present just as Christ did. Just, you're like living stones. So just as Christ dwelled in the history and space and time, you too are to dwell in history in space and time.

I think it's really important for us to ask ourselves the question, when am I in my story? Because as we ask that question, it helps us to think about how we might be better at dwelling in our current present. And so that might be a way for us to minister because we are willing to be a people who dwells in the now.

And so we're cognizant of this role as priests reflecting God to the world and the world to God. One of the simplest ways that I think we can do that is by sharing in the humanity of others. And so we can talk about how we wrestle with this reality of waiting, that we too spend our day sometimes wishing and worrying and wanting that once I get here, then my life will really begin. And we can have those conversations and we can talk about how, what if we lived differently. That's a way for us to dwell now, and that's what God's people are called to, to dwell now, to be people who reflect goodness and grace and hope and serve where they can.

So my question to you is, rather than waiting your life away, how might you be more present in your day-to-day? How might you be a person who offers human connection and kindness to the world around you. How might you serve? Because that'll help you not weight your life away, but rather live towards it.

Finally, we wanna embrace the season we are in. The passage that comes from first Peter, he talks about how once these people were not God's people, but now they are God's people. The people of God are from all over the world, from all places, from, from all descendants, and that in Christ there's this beautiful unification, but he's reminding them, Hey, you were once here, but now you're here.

And so embrace where you are. Rather than continuing to live as a person who doesn't know God, live as a person who knows God. And how do you do that? Well, you offer yourself as a spiritual sacrifice. You engage for the good, and that's what he's encouraging the people to do. This applies to our life as well.

The other day, my daughter turned 13 and we were together and going through a bunch of old pictures, and I couldn't believe how much she has grown up in such a short time. I also couldn't believe how much older I look in a short time. But it's this reminder that each season has different challenges and different joys, and it's so easy for us to miss them.

Because we're wishing to get to this next phase, we're just talking about how much better it'll be once this happens. We're constantly worrying about what's happening next, and so we miss the very season of life we're in. But what God tells us is don't wait our life away. Rather embrace it. Embrace the season you're in.

And so my encouragement to you is if you're in a season of life, You're in high school, your college, your life is being built. There's a sense of opportunity and wonder. Embrace that season. Lean into it. If you're in a place in which you have young kids, there's a grind to that, and it's so challenging in so many ways, but it's also sweet and funny.

Embrace that season because that season will not last forever. For others of us, our children are getting older and, and we have to learn how to embrace celebrating their independence and their change. And for some of us, we're in another season of life where we see the end of things. Our careers ending, our families are ending.

What does it look like for us to embrace that season, to sit in the joy and the wonder of all that has been? While also buoyed by the faith and hope of all that will still be because this is not it. This is not the final story. Hey, it's been enjoyable to be with you this week. If you have a moment in which you find yourself worrying or wanting your life away this week, remind yourself.

You want to engage it, you want to be a builder. You wanna have that builder mindset. You know where you're going and you're building towards it. You have a sense of anticipation. It shouldn't extract you from your life, but it should help you lean in with a sense of anticipation of a future of goodness and love, and finally, pay attention to the season you're in and embrace it fully.

So glad to be with you. See you again next week. Take care.