This Is The Day The Lord Has Made - Nina Otsweleng
Recently, my mum sent me an email with a bunch of photos from a time when we went hiking with one of my friends. Often, she’ll come across moments captured through photos and send them to me. We call her “Paparazzi”; because she’s always taking photos and as much as we make fun of her, I’ve grown to LOVE and do the same. I do often wonder though, when looking back on photos, if I actually lived in the moment or made the most of that day.
The answer hasn’t always been yes. For this reason, I’ve had to learn to be intentional about making the most of each day. Let me take you on a journey through a few stories of how I went from dwelling in the moment, to living for a moment and now truly living in the moment, making the most of each day. Brace yourself, some of these might be extreme, or funny, depends how you take them.
Dwelling in The Moment
When I was living in Cape Town, I use to take the train to work as owning a car was not possible. The thing about Cape Town is, when it rains, it rains sideways and it pours. So, as you can imagine, the train situation wasn’t exactly ideal. There was one particular day, where the weather app said it would be sunny, but instead it poured. As I was walking to the office it was raining hard, I noticed one of my colleagues pass me in a car and I arrived later, completely drenched, even my socks were wet.
The cleaning lady saw me and leant me some of her dry clothes and shoes, a pair of sandals three sizes too big. I remember being so embarrassed and also offended that my colleague didn’t stop to help me. Talk about having a ‘bad day’, that created a bad week, because I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened and all the inconveniences.
The truth is, the day hadn’t been bad and neither had the week. I had taken a moment and dwelt on it, even after it had passed. All to the point where I missed out on some beautiful moments like how the lady had helped me.
I’ve been a culprit of doing this often but with time I’ve realised that we rob ourselves of great moments by sitting in the past or focusing on the bad.
Living for A Moment
I went on a holiday once with a friend, it looked great on Instagram and we had the best time but let me tell you the truth, I had not budgeted for the trip. In fact, I had taken a mini loan, without even considering how I would pay it back.
We went to the best restaurants with the best food, every day was an adventure with activities and adventures. It was great but by the time we got back, I had no electricity, no gas for cooking, no food in the house and a mini loan to pay off. Let’s just say, the months after were not the best.
Anyone who saw my social media might have thought I was doing great, living in the moment. But I had no regard for the future, so in actual fact, I was living for the moment.
Living in The Moment
I believe that God wants us to make the most of our days, and so I’ve grown curious about how to actually in the moment and do it properly.
When Covid season came through, I was tempted to fixate on what was happening and freak out about the future. Well actually, I did those things but I came across this verse and took the opportunity to learn from it.
“Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do. So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life ahead of you is meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 11:9-10
Here are a few things I took away from that verse:
Have a posture of gratitude
Every day is a gift from God and we should be glad and rejoice in it.
Find what you love and make time for it
Scheduling doesn’t restrict you; it gives you the freedom and ability to be in the moment each day.
Be flexible
Anything can happen in a day but it’s okay because ultimately, Jesus is in control.
Have fun but don’t forget the future
In the moment, remember that we will be hold accountable and you have a future ahead of you.
By God’s grace, in doing these, I’ve managed to change the way I live, to be in the moment. The present doesn’t feel so overwhelming anymore, because this IS the day that the Lord has made, we will be glad and rejoice in it.
Written by Nina Otsweleng
Nina is on team at Kingdomcity in Gaborone, Botswana.