The Already and the Not Yet!

As of yesterday, it’s officially Spring! And, I don’t know about you, but I am READY for it. Spring is my favorite—the bright colors, the warmer (but not yet too warm) weather, the flowers, and Easter. Easter has always been my favorite holiday, even as a kid. I loved dying Easter Eggs with my Mamaw, I loved the new dresses, the special music at church, and the coconut candy.

It has also always seemed to me that as followers of Christ, Easter should be our banner holiday. I mean, obviously, the birth of Christ is important—the fact that God was willing to leave Heaven, come to Earth, and live the life that He did. But Easter, Easter is the culmination of all of that. Easter proved that He was right. These crazy things that He had been saying came true. He did what no one else had done, He took our sin upon Him, and stood in our place, granting us access to God. And then the resurrection demonstrated the victory that He gives us over death. That is hard NOT to get excited about!

But, we are now in this weird place, because the death and resurrection already happened. We shouldn’t just get excited about it seasonally, it’s something we can be excited about every day. It happened—we know He came back—we should live excited. This shouldn’t be a fact that we “forget,” and then all of a sudden remember every year when the Lenten season rolls around. But, it happened over 2,000 years ago, right? And, if we are completely honest, no one walks around excited 365 days a year. So we live in this weird juxtaposition that many theologians refer to as the “already and the not yet.”

We already have eternal life, yet we are not fully experiencing that eternal life as it will be. Christ has somehow already won the final battle over death and Hell, yet that final battle has not yet taken place. We are already new creations in Christ, yet we are still sinners, not yet perfected. We have a relationship with Christ, but we have not yet seen the face of God, unable to walk with Him here on Earth as we will in Heaven.

So—how do we do this? How do we navigate this idea that we are living out the “already and not yet?” What does it mean for us on the most practical of levels? To me, I think it’s a marvelous mantra to keep in our minds as we face day-to-day struggles. It is SO easy to get bogged down in the problems of today. Family problems, sickness, strife in relationships, financial burdens—we have no end to the uninvited issues that insert themselves in to our lives. And, unfortunately, a relationship with Christ doesn’t stop these problems from appearing. While Christ makes many promises to us in His word, there is a never a promise that we won’t face difficulty.

However, if we can keep this idea of the “already and not yet” in front of us, hopefully it can lend us some perspective. While our problems may not disappear, we can use these words to help us see past them. We can remember that while we don’t see how this problem will resolve, and may not be able to imagine a day when it is not a burden that we carry, Christ can see our future. He not only can see it, but according to Isaiah 46:10, God will accomplish His purposes. We know that He has plans for us, and that He will see those plans to completion. So, while we haven’t gotten past this difficulty, Christ can see, in his infinite power and wisdom, the day when it is better. And while we may never be totally rid of the problem here on Earth, there will be a time when life becomes more joyful, day by day, little by little.

So today, as we look to what’s already happened, and at what is to come, may we not be so distracted by the right now. For, as Paul reminds us, “ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) May God help us all to see the right now with His eyes, remembering the amazing things that are already, and the wonderful things that are not yet.