I am already here. I always was.

​There are a lot of things in my life I long for. Not many of them material, really. Simple things, like human connection. Belonging. And there are days that can feel far away, until I remember - remember all that is already there.

This past week I spent considerable time with really good people. I led a 3-day training and presented at another meeting. I spent time with a treasured friend. All of these experiences were centered in the beauty and power of human connection.

At times these experiences can be more reminder of what I am missing than what I have. Until I remember these beautiful people are part of what I already have.

Their laughter. Their tears. Their vulnerability. It's already there. It's already there and mine for the accepting.

The boys and I leave today for a final summer jaunt to the beach. They will make it foolish to long for anything to come when all that matters most to me in the world will already be there.

Steven Furtick says, "the more aware I am of the already blessings the more I can deal with the not yet questions."

How many of us are lost in searches for things not yet come?

How many of us begin to believe we are so far away from those things that we can't imagine that they will ever come?

I want to offer as the greatest source of hope the things that are already there.

Life is good at drawing our attention away from what I already have. I believe it is the work of the devil to leave us stranded on an island in between all that we have and all that we long for. He leaves us there wrestling with the confusion and tension and frustration of it all.

But we are not stranded on that island. We are not lost in the in between.

Every moment we have the power to step into the moments of all that we already have. And in every moment we have the power to be reminded that all that we long for is not as far away as we can begin to imagine. We are not as unworthy of it as we come to convince ourselves we are on that island.

For many reasons, I should not be alive today. Today is a sunrise that should have never arrived.

But it did. It did because in the countless yesterdays that made today feel like an unlikely event, God was there. Reminding me with reminders and sunrises I did not hear or feel, that one day I will wake up in a moment that felt like it would never come and I will hear God say, "I am here."

I am already here.

I always was.