As entertaining as movies and television are, I think sometimes that Hollywood has really messed us up.  I mean, I know it’s all about entertainment and part of that means making people feel good, but I tell ya, it really gives us a skewed vision of what life is supposed to be like.

Romantic comedies where the guy always gets the girl or military movies where one Rambo type takes on a whole army.  Cop movies where stuff gets blown up and it’s cool, or cowboy stories where the good guy always wins.

Because we know in real life the guy doesn’t always get the girl…for that matter sometimes the guy doesn’t even know the girl exists.  When one Rambo type tries to take on an army, he’s not cool, he’s crazy.  A cop can barely write a ticket anymore where he’s not being scrutinized by the public and I highly doubt the Wild West was called that because the good guys always won.

We romanticize these things because it gives us an escape from our daily life.  It’s part of the reason I love to read.  Reading allows me to drift away into another place for a bit.  Nothing wrong with that.  We all need downtime.

It’s when I start looking at these things and comparing them to my own life that I run into a problem.  Comparison is a dangerous thing.  Especially when what I’m comparing myself to is an unattainable reality.

We all have hopes and dreams and expectations for our lives.  We want this or that.  We have our 5 year or 10 year goals or we envision where we see ourselves this time next month or next year.  And then that time arrives and maybe it’s not what we expected.  I’m guessing it seldom is.  We look around at others’ lives and want what they have without fully understanding what it took for then to get it.

And all the while?  We are missing what’s right in front of us.  The beautiful reality that is us.  The perfect moment of now.

Maybe that now for you comes with pain and seems like anything but perfect.  Maybe your now is filled with agony of disease or loss, sadness or discontent.  Your now seems like the longest now you’ve ever experienced and you want nothing more than this now to be then.

Or maybe your now is overcome with joy, celebration and pure unadulterated glee.  Maybe your now has new life, a long awaited change, or hard fought for victory.  You look around at your now and everything seems to be glorious.  Oh, that this now could last forever.

Either way…this now is your now.  Don’t miss your now.  Because God is doing something in your now, whether you can see it or not.  God is not one to sit on His holy hands.  He is not an idle God.  He is a God of plans and creation and beautiful new things that spring forth from once hard dry ground that’s been soaked with Living Water.  He is the God of your now.  And today’s now will lead into tomorrow’s now like building blocks in this story that He is writing just for you.

So while you might find yourself entertained by the imagined now on the big screen, or admire the now of your neighbor, don’t forget to live YOUR now.  It’s yours…and there is beauty to be found in it.

What’s your now look like?  Is it a joyful now or a painful now?  Take a moment to offer up praise to God in your now, whatever it may be, knowing that He is there in it with you.  Depending on where you are in your now, spend some time today offering up thanksgiving or maybe seeking solace in His presence.