Live and Love NOW: Tomorrow is not real

So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today Matthew 6:34

You might not realise it, but the future is an illusion! We think we know what will happen, and often we are right…but it’s not real until it actually happens. Until it takes place, the future is but a construct in our mind. Yet our bodies still respond to what we project, or expect, as if it were happening.

Tightened chest. Sweaty palms. Shortened breaths. Heightened arousal, with associated negative or positive emotions, is a physical response to what we’re thinking about, based on our nervous system’s conditioning. I am no expert on this, but I’ve experienced it many times!

It happens when I am anxiously fretting about what might happen. Whilst game playing multiple scenarios. Whilst scripting potential conversations. Whilst trying to psych myself up for any situation!

Even as a young lad I would take myself into an imaginative dream world. A world where everything was as I chose. It all suited me! No pain. No rejection. No mistakes—or if I did make them (for added realism) the consequences were satisfying! It’s here I wanted to dwell—especially as I learned my body would respond to the fantasy situations.

For me this was the opposite of anxiety. I ignored the worries of tomorrow by replacing them with my ‘perfect day’. For others, anxious worry is their default response. 

But is this where Jesus calls us to live and to love? I do not believe it is. W. Paul Young, author of The Shack, calls it ‘future tripping’ which creates fear-based imaginations, to which our bodies respond. And it takes us away from the reality in front of us. The future is an illusion that exists only in our mind. No love takes place in the future. It only happens now. You can plan to love, yes. But until it actually happens it is an illusion. How many of us have planned to love, but never since done so?

Living in the future is like serving a false master. It is like filling our body with false light (cf. v22-24a) — expectations, personal ambition, fame, easy life, fear, hiding, escapism, people-pleasing. It is setting our minds upon a false treasure. One that doesn’t even exist, let alone get destroyed!

In this passage, Jesus says that we cannot ‘add a single hour to our life’ by projecting into the future. Not by anxiously processing multiple scenarios. Not by selfishly escaping to a fantasy fiction. Instead, Jesus calls us into the reality of today. The present. Now. This is the real deal.

We’ll see later how Jesus is also the real deal. And he is in the present. He is here with us now. And he calls us to live and love today. 

I can hear you, what about ambition, preparation, and planning? Is Jesus saying we should not plan our lives or look forward to our holidays? It’s a great question! 

Let’s see how this pans out. I believe Jesus is inviting us to walk with him, as he walled with his Father whilst here on earth. To know his goodness. To experience his love. To co-create live together. Does involve planning holidays? Yes I’m sure it does. Does he want us to dream about how we can walk together? Yes, for sure — therefore let’s do it together with him. In the moment. In reality.