Video: The next best time is now

The best time to invest in your present was yesterday. The next best time... is now. 

✅

There's an ancient Chinese proverb which asks, "When is the best time to plant a tree."

The answer: "50 years ago."

I suppose the follow—up question SHOULD be (because a lot of us didn’t plant that tree 50 years, or even do LAST WEEK what we wanted to get done)…

When’s the NEXT BEST time to plant a tree?

Answer?

Now.

The reason…?

Because there’s still great stuff ahead for you…

⭐️

Make note…

God HAS (present + future tense) plans for you— not had (past).

That’s an important distinction.

It’s now. And future.

Not just past.

That’s what one of the most famous verses in the Bible, Jeremiah 29:11 declares, right? “ know the plans I HAVE for you… plans for a hope and a future.”

And, interestingly enough, that verse was written to people who were living amidst a great struggle, right in the fight of their lives…

Although the past may explain some things about us (it got us to where we are now— the good, the bad, and everything in between)— His plans are for the present and for the future.

In fact, whereas humans tend to look at our past, God looks at the present and your potential.

And He loads it with grace.

Funny thing is… some of the most God-professing people aren’t that way at all, are they? They can learn one thing about you, one small thing they uncover (maybe even something you share with them), and then turn and use it against you— no matter how close you were to them in the midst of that chaos, that storm.

They write you off.

But grace…

It knows no such bounds. And has no expiration dates, no exclusion clauses, no opt-outs. Grace always writes you back in.

And, in fact, it works in the opposite direction… of human “wisdom.” Grace always bringing hope, always fighting for restoration, always infusing love and grace…

… because God see what is and what could be…

... it’s an assurance that the best is still to come, that judgment doesn’t get the final say, that the critic condemns themself in tossing a stone towards you.

Because grace hopes forward, never hobbling backwards.