Know where you are before you worry about where you are going

​I took the boys to Westmoreland State Park yesterday. As you drive in, you see a big river. So big you might wonder if it's the ocean.

Elliott asked me - is that a river, or is that a bay?

I didn't know, really. Our Virginia waterways aren't my expertise. Geography in general leaves me feeling a constant state of lost.

So I told him, I think it's a little both. (If all else fails when your kids ask you an important question, just go with a little bit of everything). 🤷‍♂️

When we parked the car, we saw a large wooden map. It was a map of the whole eastern seaboard from North Carolina all the way up to Maryland. I told Elliott, this will help us figure out what that waterway is.

But it didn't help. Because nowhere on the map did it indicate exactly where we were.

On the way home yesterday, the boys dead asleep in the back seat, I thought about that map. I thought about life. I thought about how we often get stuck feeling lost because we're spending our time trying to figure out where we're going instead of getting absolutely certain about where we are.

Maybe the future often feels so uncertain because we can't even find certainty in the here and now.

I confess to feeling a lot of that uncertainty about the future lately.

But this weekend, I felt less of that uncertainty than I've felt in a very long time. Because this weekend, I had my boys, and I was focused on being the best dad I could be. I didn't need to know what kind of dad I'd be in the future to do that. I just needed to know what kind of dad I wanted to be in each moment I was with them this weekend.

Yesterday, there was a moment I was standing on the shore of the Potomac River (I did learn something yesterday). I stood there watching my boys swimming a hundred yards or so out in that water.

There was peace.

I pulled up a song on my phone - Be Still and Know by Jeremy Riddle. I stood there and listened.

Let go
Let go of your worries
Only one thing is needed
Just be still and know
Be still and know
That I am the Lord

Sometimes, to ease the worries of not knowing where we are going, we need to refocus our attention on where we are. Sometimes, it's really hard to quiet the noise of uncertainty that comes with the future. But we can all find a way to be still and know, at least for a moment - we can know where we are in the here and now.

I think we spend a lot of time waiting for magic to happen, to reveal the path forward. But maybe the magic is in figuring out where we are right now. Maybe lost isn't not knowing where I'm going, maybe lost is not knowing where I'm standing right now.

Who am I right now?
What is important to me?
In the midst of all the uncertainty about who I'll be a year from now, who do I insist on being right now?

Spend a little time this week figuring out where you are, and I promise, where you're going will become a lot more clear.