Right Here, Right Now
I’m not going to sit here and lie about it- I love High School Musical. I have all three movies and saw the only one to come out in theaters on opening day. It’s a well circulated story that the two other college freshmen who accompanied did so to watch me watch the movie and were not disappointed. Now that I’m a senior in college, I’m falling in love with HSM3 all over again: Troy and Gabriella are moving through their senior year and trying to figure out the future, and I’m doing the same, just four years ahead.
Unfortunately, “thinking about the future” often just translates to “sitting and worrying.” The HSM soundtrack conveys this well, with plenty of heartfelt songs about indecision, conflicting opinions, and fears, but it also slows down for a song called “Right Here, Right Now.”
Oh we know it’s coming, and it’s coming fast
So let’s make each second last, make it last
Right here, right now
I’m looking at you and my heart loves the view, ’cause you mean everything
Right here, I promise you somehow
That tomorrow can for wait for some other day to be
‘Cause right now there’s you and me
T & G are singing about each other here, but in looking at the lyrics, I’m reminded of my relationship with God and certain Psalms. One of my favorite passages from the Psalms comes from the 73rd and says
“Yet I am always with You,
You hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with Your counsel,
and afterward You will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And earth has nothing I desire besides You.
My heart and my flesh may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.”
And later in the New Testament, we’re told to make the most of every opportunity but to not worry about tomorrow (each day has enough worries of its own).
The idea here isn’t to stop what I’m doing and hope the future won’t come as quickly because I’m singing about my feelings. It’s to be more aware of what I’m doing in this moment and how I can serve and love God and others in this moment. In “The Screwtape Letters,” C.S. Lewis mentions how people often get so caught up in fears about hypothetically doing something wrong in the future that they forget that their sitting and worrying about it right now is doing something wrong in the present!
Planning is important, but let’s be honest- at this point, I’m just stopping and thinking “I’ve done everything I can to be prepared for X and I just can’t handle sitting and waiting! God, what if Y happens? Or what if Q happens?! I hadn’t thought of Q before!!!” (where Q is some far-off possibility about which I can do nothing right now)
Right here, right now. Am I fearing, doubting, and forgetting to cast my cares on God? Or am I learning to wait in peace, to yield control to God, and to truly rest in and trust Him? I’m praying that I’ll do much more of the second than the first, even during trying times.
