Torn from top to bottom, was the veil. Surely, He was innocent.

Wherever you are, be all there.

Jim Elliot.

It's been several years now, since my mother read that quote somewhere. It provided a sort of paradigm shift for her. My parents are relatively quiet about what they are experiencing spiritually and emotionally, yet i can distinctly remember her communicating how much of an impact those words had on her life. So much so that she asked me to make them the banner on her cell phone.

At any rate, although i certainly grasped the significance of "being all there" on a somewhat vague level, it only really impacted me the way a postcard would. Aware, yet completely oblivious to the depth behind a 3 x 5. i tend to be a daydreamer and somewhat irrational about my hopes for the future, but there's only so much damage that can do when you're 15. i'm beginning now to see why being all there was, and is, so important to my mom.

It really is a tension, is it not? To be a responsible adult in that we want to prepare for the future, and yet to live in the realization that today we have today, and that is it. i was talking to my best friend today about that line, that very fine line, and it hit me quite vividly that i often risk missing out on today because i want the tomorrows to be just how i plan for them to be. This day. Right now. It is the day that Jesus has made. Find joy in that. Find real, deep, life-giving joy in the fact that Jesus made today all that it is, and He offers something new today that tomorrow will have left behind.

Be all there.