here // now

Some of you are probably aware by now that I recently underwent the brief and permanent procedure of adding decorations to this pasty white little body of mine. 

And to those of you who have asked, I have given a hasty and possibly incomplete explanation of what, exactly, they mean. But I felt it was time to explain them more fully here, where the English language is on my side. 

Two simple words, in my own simple handwriting: 

Here. Now. 

Contrary to immediate surmissions, this is neither my homage to paganism nor my pledge of newfound fidelity to hedonism. This is not Yolo. I apologize for the confusion. As my brother and a good friend both said, "Here Now? Don't you mean 'Heaven Later?" 

And they're not wrong. My hope is not here, though I keep it here with me. My treasure and my reward is somewhere ahead of me, I know not how far off. 

But my calling is here. It is now. It is in no other place, and at no other time.

Here. 

Because this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, whether I know it or not, whether I see it or not. This place is where my story is. Here I speak; here I scramble (feebly) to share His love, with these hands and this tongue. No longer asking that the Lord send someone, but that he send me; not that he sends someone more able, but that he uses my inability for his name's sake. 

Now. 

Because there is no other time. Because this is the moment I am given to shine His light. Because this is the time to look and act and speak and be. For as long as we're given, in every moment we have, because souls are dying and I have been given the saving story. 

Here. Now. No matter where, no matter when, be there. This is my reminder to do my best. Not to wait, and do it later. To spill out my energy in its entirety and lean on a strength that can fill me up again. 

In the words of Jim Eliot: "Wherever you are, be all there." 

In the words of Teddy Roosevelt: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." 

In the words of Andrew Peterson: "Abide in me, let your Branches bear your fruit; remove in me the Branch that bears no fruit--and move in me, as I abide in You."