Several years ago I read someone who wrote that too many people live on Someday Isle. Any time they are asked what they want to do they begin their answer with "Someday I'll...." The problem is that day never arrives and they approach the end of their lives having never enjoyed living out their dreams.
I just finished reading Live Ten: Jump-Start the Best Version of Your Life
by Terry A. Smith who addresses the same thing in one chapter. He writes, "Some of us are spending our lives preparing for life. We're waiting for someday or for when this dream comes true...that business gets started...my kids graduate from college...I pay off my debts...I retire. Someday. When? To be growing people, we can't forget that as we're working on better, best, and preferred things, we still must show up in the present and be thankful for this moment." The truth is it is often in doing the mundane things in life that we are able to move into a more preferred future. Smith writes, "Keep doing the fundamentally right things regardless of whether they immediately pay off. There's a lot to be said about getting up every day and doing those things until at some point over time, we experience a victorious result. Great dreams, ideas, and futures don't happen overnight; they manifest through perseverance."So many people I know seem to be preparing for life rather than living it. I want to always be growing and have dreams for the future, but I don't want to miss out on what God wants to do in my life now either. I don't want to be one of those people who die with the music still in them. Yes, we need to be looking towards the future, but we also need to live in the present and allow ourselves to be used right where we are today.
A lot of churches live on Someday Isle as well. Ask such churches what they are doing to impact people's lives, and they will respond that they are looking for a pastor who can lead them in a new vision, or they are waiting for someone to come who can build a great youth ministry, or they are waiting until their denomination comes up with a new program that will jump-start their church, or they are waiting for something else to happen so they can begin to be used by God. Unfortunately, none of those things are likely to ever happen, and if they are still open in fifty years they would probably still be waiting for the same things to occur.
God has a purpose for your church today, and it can be fulfilled by the people and the resources you have today. If your church isn't willing to live into that purpose now it should not think that God will bring a greater vision for ministry later. You've already demonstrated that you prefer making excuses than using the talents and resources you have now for ministry today. Be faithful where you are today, and God will bring an increase in both resources and ministry opportunities.
The same is true for you as an individual. God wants you to live your life today. Don't wait until everything is perfect in your life to begin living life because things will never be perfect. There will always be something that could be better. The devil will give you plenty of excuses to keep you from living the life God has for you. Always be looking to the future, but live your life now. You'll be glad you did.
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