I spent a lot of time thinking about the future. My brain is wired for efficiency, so no matter the task or topic, it’s constantly trying to optimize. It saves me some degree of time, to be sure, but I’m guilty of putting together plans for my plans.

Having a plan, for a project or just life, is a great thing. It allows you to make many decisions at the outset, and align your choices towards that end. Decision-making is streamlined because any option that doesn’t result in getting closer to the destination is instantly ruled out. You can move fast, and dedicate your mental load to other tasks.

But spending too much time thinking about the future cuts against you. Like dwelling on the past, you expend effort and emotional energy on things that cannot be changed. Life in the present moment passes you by because your head is always somewhere else.

At least when you dwell on the past, you have total certainty. The future, in many ways, is more troubling. Nothing is guaranteed as the ground is constantly shifting. It can be easy to spiral out of control, worrying about this or that thing that, frankly, might never even approach becoming a reality.

In moments like this, when I spend too much time thinking about the future and my anxiety about it starts to build, into my consciousness floats the words of Jesus:

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. - Matthew 6:34

Every season in life comes with its own unique challenges, no one better or worse than the next. Early in your marriage, you have all the time in the world to spend with your wife, and it’s difficult to figure out what to do with that time. Later, as parents, there is zero time and you yearn for that quiet freedom. Young children require most decisions to be made for them throughout the exhausting days, but they also deliver minutely doses of cuteness and unbridled love. As they grow, you get to connect with them as people, but lost is that lovable innocence from earlier days.

The past is over, and the future is always on its way, but what I have today is the present. And in the present I have a wonderful wife, four delightful children, a warm home, a cool job, and the opportunity to use every minute of today living the life I was made to enjoy.