Living for Two Days

A journal reflection from Rocky Mountain National Park – July 2025

Terri and I have been on a weeklong mountain retreat, tucked into the beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park. Today we walked a long, quiet four miles together — with the sun rising through the pines and the path stretching ahead like a living metaphor. I could feel restoration happening in my soul. Something settled in me as I walked.
One recurring invitation from the Lord today was this: Live in the moment. Not just for the future.
I’ve often leaned forward too far — forecasting, planning, preparing. That isn’t wrong. But today, I felt challenged to “live for two days”: this day, and that Day when I will stand before the Lord.

To live fully present in each unfolding moment—while anchored in eternity—is the true way of a disciple. That kind of presence turns each task, each conversation, each offering of love into something sacred. I believe that if we learn to live well today, we’ll be ready for that Day. Everything we do out of abiding becomes part of what endures.

As we continued to walk, another layer opened. I felt the Lord reminding me to acknowledge Him in all my way—just as David wrote in Psalm 16. It wasn’t a command to strive but an invitation to recognize Him:
“I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
This verse embodies a profound commitment to keeping the Lord at the center of one’s life. By consciously placing God before us, we acknowledge His guidance and presence in every aspect of our journey. The imagery of the Lord at one’s right hand signifies a position of strength and support, indicating that with Him beside us, we are unshakable.
Today I witnessed his presence …
in the trail beneath my feet,
in the wonder of the wildlife and wildflowers,
In the beauty of the mountain stream and lakes,
in the strenuous exercising of my body/temple,
in the laughter and my joyful attachment with Terri,
in these providential moments, I too often overlook.

I’ve come to see that one of the enemy’s most subtle strategies is to plant a seed of discontent—the idea that if we were truly spiritual or faithful, we’d be somewhere else, doing something else, living some other life. But that is a lie. The Kingdom is at hand. God is not waiting for us elsewhere—He is with us here—for it’s the only place we can actually be.

There is no sacred/secular split. No divide between nature and supernature. That was never a biblical worldview. It’s a fracture in modern thinking that makes us miss the God who is always present.

Providence is simply the usual activity of God.
Miracles are the unusual.
But both are His power at work.

Furthermore, in Acts 19, it says “extraordinary miracles” were done by Paul—which means there are also ordinary miracles. How many of those do we miss every day because we’ve mislabeled them as “just life”?

So, today’s grace is this: I want to delight in the moment, live it well, live it fully, and resist the urge to race ahead. I want to see God in both the astonishing and the unassuming. I want to live for today… and for That Day. And I think if I do, I’ll find myself walking in step with what God wanted all along.

—Michael