Living a Present Life

The only way for each of us to live completely present is to learn from, be grateful for, and then release the pains of our past in a manner that makes them free to go. No way around this one, unfortunately. It’s unavoidable, however un-fun it may feel right now. Part of growing spiritually is putting in the work. We are told this in Philippians 2:12. But oftentimes, we avoid the hard work of spiritual and emotional growth, choosing instead to ignore what we are truly feeling, or to mask it, in an effort to cope.

As a result, far too many of us have allowed our emotions to stack up within. This only hardens our hearts over time. Rather than address our uncomfortable emotions, we’ve ignored them. It’s easier, after all, to hang your hopes on inspirational posts that tell you, “It’s a new day” and you should just “move on.”

But just as you could never “move on” from dirty dishes piled in your sink by simply wishing them away, neither can you wish away your uncomfortable emotions or past experiences. All emotions must be processed in order to loosen their grip on your right-now moments.

You process your emotions by acknowledging them, accepting them (as opposed to judging), allowing yourself to truly feel them (this doesn’t take nearly as long as you may think), learning from them, and then letting them go. When you do that, you can move on. But if you don’t, you’ll wind up with a bit of a smelly and stained soul that might require some deep scrubbing. Thankfully, God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to help in this washing and renewing process.

Prayer: Jesus, let Your Spirit wash and renew my emotions so that I can enjoy my present moments more fully.