Are We There Yet?
by Brandy Webb
You know that favorite cliché when traveling, “Are we there yet?” Well, what about in our lives—are we there yet? Are we happy and content yet with our lives? Or are we still waiting, withholding enjoying life, until we arrive at some destination in our lives? You know, like when someone says, “Well, I’ll be happy when I get a new job,” or “get a new car,” or “get a new house,” or “get married,” or “have kids,” or “retire,” or when “this or that” happens. All we are doing is putting off enjoying life until the next “this or that” happens when we are supposed to enjoy life now. If we put off enjoying life until tomorrow, we may not ever enjoy life because tomorrow never comes; we only live in today.
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today and tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15).
Life is too short to not enjoy the moment right now. Even if we live to 120 years old, it will still be too short. We are like dust in the wind, here a moment and gone in a moment, and if we are constantly looking towards the next “this or that” things to enjoy life, we will miss living. It is a gift from God to enjoy the blessings we receive, when we receive them. It is good for us “to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot” (Eccl 5:18).
See, I have a tendency to get excited about reaching a goal, but once it is in place, I start looking for another hill to conquer instead of enjoying the fact that I just conquered a hill. Honestly, I have a never-ending goal list that I seem to add to daily. Well, my husband, who loves me, brought this point up the other night as we were sitting in our living room of our new house. He started the conversation off by stating his hope that nine years from now, God willing, we will still be here enjoying our house. He wants us to make sure we enjoy the accomplishment of working nine years towards a house and finally seeing it through. He doesn’t want us to forget what it took to reach our goal, and just start moving on to new and bigger projects, thinking, Well, I’ll enjoy our new home once this or that is also completed.
I know I said it before, but I’m saying it again, life is too short to wait on the “this and that” moments. “There is nothing better for [us] than to be joyful and to do good as long as [we] live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man” (Eccl 3:12-13).
So, are you and I “there yet”? Have we arrived at our destination of contentment? We are to enjoy the fruits of our labor today. Don’t put off joy into the morrow. We are to be content with what we have right now because no one knows when we will take our last breath. So live and be joyful today. Enjoy your blessings. Rejoice because you are blessed.