Sermon Transcript — August 12, 2006
I'd like to take you now to something that I heard a number of years go. It had a great effect upon me at the time, and I've listened to it over the years. Often a song or a poem can capture a moment, or it can capture a thought that causes you to think and causes you to see something much deeper.
This particular thought-provoking song, and it became rather famous many years ago, was sung by a performer named Harry Chapin. Harry Chapin performed this song back in December of 1974. In December of 1974, it was the number one song on the Billboard chart. The title of the song is "Cat's in the Cradle." It was a particularly interesting song in that it took nursery rhymes and weaved them into a story that had a profound and also haunting effect upon everyone who had a family because of the story that it told.
The song is about fathers who have too little time for their families. But it's about more than just fathers. It seems that life passes all of us by so quickly that we often look back with guilt and regrets. When asked what the song was really about in an interview in 2003, the actual author of the poem, upon which the song was based, and that's Harry Chapin's wife, Sandy, Sandy made the following comment about the song. She says, "The whole point of the story is that we learn our lessons in life by making mistakes, by trial and error, by experience," she said. Adding, "It would be great if we could learn about the future ahead of time, but we have to learn the hard way. It's like the old saying, 'Too old too soon; too wise too late.'"
The chorus of the song tells a haunting story about a father who doesn't have time for his newborn son. And then at the end of the song, it goes back and everything is reversed; the son is grown up, and he has no time for his father. The chorus of the song goes like this: "And the cat's in the cradle, and the silver spoon. Little boy blue and the man in the moon. When you coming home, Dad? I don't know when, but we'll get together then. You know, we'll have a good time then."
And of course, the author, this lady who wrote the poem that it was based upon, wanted to weave in nursery rhymes in order to make the song more memorable, and it struck a real cord with many, many families, and of course, many fathers.
At the end of the song, though, the father is retired, and he wants to spend time with his son. But of course, the son now doesn't have time for him. And the end of the song goes like this: "I've long since retired, and my son's moved away. I called him up just the other day. I said, 'I'd like to see you, if you don't mind.' He said, 'I'd love to, Dad, if I could find the time. You see, my new job's a hassle, the kids' got the flu, but it's sure nice talking to you.' And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me, he'd grown up just like me. My boy was just like me. And the cat's in the cradle, and the silver spoon. Little boy blue and the man in the moon. When you coming home, Son? I don't know when, but we'll get together then, Dad. You know, we'll have a good time then."
When you speak about such events, such activities that occur in everyone's life, you look back and you wonder, well where has the time gone?
There's a poem that's recorded on a sundial at Wellesley College in the Northeastern part of the United States. This poem, the author is anonymous, but it says something about the future. It says, "The shadow by my finger cast divides the future from the past. Behind its unreturning line, the vanished hour no longer thine. Before it lies the unknown hour, in darkness and beyond thine power. When hour alone is in your hands, the "now" on which the shadow stands."
We spend time on things that we value most. We may not put it in these words, but it is true. If someone asks you to come over for dinner, and you say to them, "I don't have time." What you really should be saying to them is that, "I value some other event," maybe appropriately, "more than having dinner with you." Because we all have time. You see, there's a fallacy that we don't have time.
There are two fallacies about time. The first is that we think we're going to have more time at some specified time in the future. Well, I'll have more time next week. I'll have more time next month. That's a fallacy. You have the same amount of time all the time.
The second fallacy is that we think we can somehow save time. It's impossible to save time. We all have the same twenty-four hours every day. Our children only grow up once. We only have a family at home for a very brief period of time, and of course, ABC occurs for you as students only once. And it too is a brief portion of your life. I did a little calculating, seven months out of an average life span, if you were to live to be eighty, amounts to seven tenths of one percent of your life. Very small period of time in the greater scheme of things.
And when it's over, it's over. What happens afterward? What happens with the time? How do you use the future? I would submit to you this afternoon that the future is not next week, is not next month, is not next year. The future is now. The future is now. It is now that we must be applying what we have learned.
I'll give you a parable about time. It's a parable that deals with money as it relates to time. Here's the way the parable goes. What if you had a bank that credited to your account eighty-six thousand four hundred dollars every day, but did not carry a balance over day by day? You would not be allowed to keep cash in your account, and every evening, your account was zeroed out. What you failed to spend was taken away from you. Well, what would you do? Of course, you would spend every bit of it every day. You wouldn't leave a single penny to be lost at the end of the day.
Each of us has such a bank. Each of us has such an account. It is called, "time." Every morning you are credited with eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds. Every night, it cancels whatever of that that you failed to invest. It carries over no balances; it allows no overdrafts; every day it opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the records of the day before. There is no drawing against tomorrow. You can only live in the present, and we can only live on today's deposits. Time is something that we all have. The question is: how do we use it?
The future, again, I say, isn't something down the road. Now is the future, not only for those who are leaving ABC, but for those of us in the church. Now is the time, not next week, not next month. Now is the time to change your life. Now is the time to commit to God. Now is the time. The future is now. The future is now.
Turn with me to I Peter 4. There's a profoundly haunting scripture here, if I may use that terminology. It's a frightening scripture. I've read it; I've used it; I've spoken about it over the years; notice what Peter writes:
I Peter 4:17 - "For the time has come. . ." The time is now . ". . . for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" Judgment begins now with us. One of the frightening things in having grown up in the church and having viewed this way of life all of my life, the profound understanding that you are held accountable, that you are held accountable has pricked my conscience many times over the years, because like all of you, I've made my share of mistakes, and I've done my share of things wrong. And to realize that my judgment is now is a profoundly, not only motivating principle; it is a principle that God gives to us.
This world, as we know, will be judged. Everyone will be judged. No one will escape judgment, but for those of us who know the truth, now is the time. Now is the future. We're not looking to the second resurrection. We're not looking to the millennium in that sense. Now is the time. Now is the time. That's what Peter said. Therefore, today means a great deal. Now is the time.
Look at James 4. Some may say, well, you know, I'm not baptized, so, you know, what accountability do I have? I'm an adult. I know the truth, but, you know, I'm not really baptized yet, so that kind of lets me through. James 4:17, James addresses this very issue. It says:
James 4:17 - "Therefore, to him who knows to do good. . ." If you know what's right and don't do it. . . ". . . to him it is sin." In the King James it refers in a similar way, that if you know what's right; if you know the truth, and you don't apply it, woe to you. It doesn't use the term - "woe" - in the King James, but it calls it - "sin."
I don't see any dividing line here that says, "Well, you know, it's not till you're baptized. It's not till you've gone through that." Well, as a young person growing up in the church of God, I didn't suddenly come to a knowledge of the Sabbath, and then was baptized, or a knowledge of the holy days; I knew that from a child. And I felt an accountability. It was, quite honestly, a bit frightening to think about the accountability that I had before God.
When you think about the knowledge that we have. When you think about the knowledge that is dispensed in a seven-month period of time at ABC, how can we ever conclude that we're not accountable? How could you even go down that road of lacking accountability when God graciously hands it to you? What you do with it, how your future plays out is of great importance.
As Christians and members of God's church, we know the future. We know what the future holds. We know of the terrible things that are going to happen, and yet we also know the joy and the beauty of God's way of life. Look at Ephesians 5. Paul speaks in slightly different terminology, but he's making the same point.
Ephesians 5:15 - He says: "See then that you walk circumspectly. . ." Walk circumspectly - the word "circumspectly" means "exacting," "watching your step," "seeing where you are stepping in life." "See (then) that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise," You know, you read through the scriptures; you read through Proverbs, and while, you know, we can all do foolish things. And we all do foolish things, but to be a fool. A fool is someone who should know better. To foolishly deal with God's word, God doesn't seem to have a lot. . .and again, I'm certainly not the one to determine how much patience God has because He has a lot of patience with all of us, but you read through the book of Proverbs and foolishness when you should know better; it's a problem. It's not a good thing.
Notice verse 16. He says:
Verse 16 - "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." "Redeem" means to "to buy up," or "to buy back," "to rescue from loss," "to rescue from loss." Redeem your time; make full benefit of your time. You only have so much. You only have so much. Use it wisely.
Colossians 4, again, Paul addresses this particular issue of using our time and how valuable and important it is.
Colossians 4:5 - It says: "Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time." Redeeming the time, buying it back, using it wisely. It means to take advantage of it. Don't waste it. Again, it doesn't mean that every moment has to be taken up with one particular item. You don't have to read the Bible twenty-four hours a day. But what's important to you? What are your priorities? When you leave here, what will be most important? That's where your time will be invested. I simply say now is the time to change your life. Now is the time to make God the central focus of your life, not next year, next month, five years from now. Now is the time. Now is the time. Now is the future.
Over the last few months since we've been here, I've made references several times to experiences in the prison system. Because of where I lived, and because of the opportunity to conduct Bible studies in prison, I've come across a lot of people over the last twenty years in prison. In fact, it's been said of me that I've spent more time in prison than any other minister in the church, and there's probably truth to that. We had at one point eight studies in different prisons, and sometimes in a month, I would take four or five of those studies in services, and I worked with approximately one hundred individuals when I left Texas back in January of this year.
But when I first went to Texas in 1987, the population of the Texas prison system, the state prison, was sixty thousand. This is the male population. And when I left this past January, the population was over a hundred and sixty thousand. It had grown in those nineteen years by almost two hundred percent. The population in the state of Texas of the prisons is growing by ten percent per year, and most of the inmates are young people. Most of them are young males between the ages of eighteen and thirty. And most are very angry and very violent with their actions and their conduct. And virtually every week in the Texas prison system, an inmate is killed from internal violence in the prison, and it's an on-going problem.
Back in 1987, upon my arrival in Texas, I had to go and get approved to be a volunteer, a religious volunteer in the prison. And you have to go, and they fingerprint you; they do a background check; they do an FBI check on you to make sure you don't have a record yourself, or there's something amiss in your past. And then you can become qualified as an ordained minister to be a religious volunteer. And I did that back in 1987, and immediately began conducting Bible studies in the prison at that time.
One of the very first Bible studies I ever conducted, I conducted at a place called, Wallace Pack Unit. There's a Wallace Pack 1, and a Wallace Pack 2. This was Wallace Pack number 1 in Navasota, Texas.
One of the very first individuals I met upon coming into the prison was a baptized member of the church. Now he had been baptized in prison. His name was Clenard Pettis. Clenard Pettis was a very interesting person. When you go into the prisons you are told, or you are simply not allowed to ask the prisoners why they're in prison. You cannot ask them that question. You're told that as a volunteer. You can't ask them why they're there.
Now they can tell you why they're there, but you can't ask them. One of the primary reasons that you can't ask them is that the other inmates will not know why they're in prison. And for example if they were a child molester, and word got out in the prison, they would be killed. And again you simply are not allowed to do that. But Clenard told me his story, since he was already a baptized member of the church.
Now most of the men I've met in prison were guilty. I mean, I've met very few innocent people in prison. Now there are a few but I've met very few that were actually innocent. All that I've primarily met have been guilty. But Clenard told me a story.
Clenard Pettis was from the area of New Caney, Texas, which is a small town just north of Houston, in fact, it's the home of Adam Dunn, the outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds, New Caney, Texas. And Clenard was from there, and Clenard at the age of nineteen was driving around this small town of New Caney, Texas, with two of his friends. And he was unaware, and he tells me this, and I believe him, that his friends were planning to rob a convenience store. Clenard knew nothing about what their plans were, so they stopped at a convenience store just off U. S. Highway 59, a Circle K convenience store in an area called Grangerland, and he thought nothing of it.
His two friends got out and went into the store and suddenly when they walked into the store, they pulled guns out, and they robbed the store. They come rushing out. Clenard is frozen at the wheel. He knew nothing of this. What does he do? Well, of course, they tell him, "We have to get out of here, get out of here; drive the car." So he drives the car.
Three days later the three of them are arrested. They are taken to jail, and they are indicted, not just for robbery, aggravated robbery. The state of Texas had recently - this would have been about 1978, the state of Texas had just recently passed a new law, that if you have an aggravated sentence, that is if a weapon was used, then the judge can stack on time.
Now here's Clenard, nineteen years old, never been in trouble, never been arrested, I mean he graduated from high school, was looking for a career in work, had no money to go to college, and he's arrested and charged with aggravated robbery.
Well, of course, it was pretty obvious they were guilty. No one would listen to his story that he was just there. He was there, and he was convicted as well. Because it was aggravated, he got sixty year sentence, sixty years behind bars, nineteen years old facing sixty years.
When I met him in 1987, he already had about ten years done. He was about twenty-nine years of age and told me his story. He was guilty of an aggravated crime; he was guilty of a felony in the state of Texas. But the state of Texas at that time, they've since changed it, had what they call the "two for one" law. That is for every two days you served in prison, for good behavior you would get one day - I'm sorry, for every one day, you got two days taken off your sentence.
So a sixty-year sentence now was reduced to twenty years - twenty years. So for the next ten years, I conducted Bible studies and did all I could to help Clenard. Well, about ten years after I had been there in Houston, this would bring us up to the mid-ninties, Clenard was released - an opportunity for a new life. But he'd known nothing for twenty years. Nineteen to be institutionalized, he knew nothing, no career, no skill, nothing. He disappeared. We offered to help him in the church, and he just disappeared on us.
This past January, just before coming here, I got a collect from the jail in Humble, Texas, and it was Clenard. Clenard said, "Could you come and visit me."
And I said, "Well, sure, Clenard, obviously, you're back in trouble."
He said, "Yes. I violated my parole. They're sending me back." So this past January, Clenard was sent back to prison, after spending twenty years in prison, his whole sentence is now reinstated. It's now sixty years again. He's now done about thirty. He has thirty more to go.
Clenard is now forty-nine years of age. When he gets out of prison, he will be seventy-nine years of age. He never hurt anyone; he never shot anyone; he never robbed anyone, but his whole life ended when he did not respond. I mean, you could say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I certainly felt sorry for Clenard. But you know, Clenard had two opportunities as he was released twice in order to begin a new life.
But you know what Clenard would say to me when I would talk to him a lot, "When I get out, I'm going to do this. I'm going to keep the Sabbath when I get out. I'm going to go to church when I get out. The future is bright for me. Twenty years, I'm finished. I'll never go back again. You know what the recidivism rate is in the state of Texas? Sixty-seven percent go back to prison. Sixty-seven percent, most on parole violations, and their whole sentence is reinstated.
Clenard saw the future as tomorrow, next week, next month. The future is now, not next week, next month. When you have the opportunity; when you have the knowledge, the instruction and the information, it's now, not next month, not next year, not five years from now. Your life can change now. Your life should change now. Now is the time to change your life. Now is the time to do what you know is right, and to use the information you've been given.
Let's go to Ecclesiastes 12. One of the places that we often go for advice is actually, based upon his lifestyle would be a pretty poor source, and that's Solomon. Solomon failed miserably in so many areas of life, but he had a lot of wisdom. And in kind of a negative way, or more of a, you know, a perverse way in one sense, we can learn by reading Solomon's words and of course realizing that Solomon failed miserably to apply them to himself.
I'd like you to look at a section of scripture in the book of Ecclesiastes. There a section that begins in Ecclesiastes 11:9 and goes to about Ecclesiastes 12:6. This is instruction to young people, but it's instruction to all of us. And the instruction essentially says what I've been trying to say so far, "The future is now." Don't wait until things get bad to obey God; don't wait until things go wrong. Now this is the general message of this section of scripture. Do it now. And that's really the message I have for you this afternoon.
We all know the background of Solomon. He was the king of Israel during a golden age. He had everything a man could want, but he failed miserably. But in the book of Ecclesiastes he reflects on what he learned through all of that, and I believe in Solomon we see a man with great regrets and a lot of guilt as to how his life has turned out.
He spent his life pursuing things, and this is typical of so many people today, but it should not be true of us. He spent his life seeking after things. In the world of education, at least it used to be, it's not quite so today, it used to refer to the "three R's." Obviously, reading, writing, and arithmetic. We need to teach people how to do these basic things, to read, to write and to calculate or to use math. Those were the basics in education.
Today, they have what they call the "three M's." Actually, one particular book advocates teaching the three "M's" in the new millennium. The "three M's" are quite different than the "three R's." The "three M's" are these: you know, these are the three most basic things that somebody should be taught today: multi-tasking, materialistic and mind management. The "three M's." Those are the things that are being advocated as needing to be taught today, not the "three R's."
But I want you to take the "three R's," the concept of basic principles, and look at what Solomon said, because he also has "three R's" in his recommended advice. But his advice summarizes in the last part of Ecclesiastes 12 or the middle of Ecclesiastes 12, with this one essential message, and that is: "Do it now!" "Now is the future!" Don't wait until things get bad; don't wait until a catastrophe occurs; do it now. That was the message Solomon gave. Notice how he gives it. Ecclesiastes 11:9 - Here's the first "R." "Three R's," you might say. The first "R" is:
Ecclesiastes 11:9 - Rejoice, O young man, in your youth. . ." The first "R" is "Rejoice." Have a good time. Enjoy yourself. You know, you can make fun of yourself. You can have fun with other people. It's a part of life. It's a good thing to do. Rejoice. But notice what he says.
". . .and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment." Always know, now is the time. Now is the time. Don't lose sight of the immediacy, the urgency, the need to do things now. Do it now. So the first "R" is rejoice. The second "R:"
Verse 10 - "Therefore remove sorrow from your heart,. . ." Remove sorrow from your heart. ". . .and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity." So the second "R" is to remove sorrow from your heart. Much sorrow is created by what? Well it's created by sin. Or you might say much sorrow is created by abuse, abuse of alcohol, abuse of drugs, physical abuse, family abuse, all of these create sorrow. Remove that from your life. You know you may not be in control all of it but some of it you are. Remove it from your life. Don't say I'll do it tomorrow. Don't say I'll do it next week. Now is the time. Now is the time to remove sorrow which promotes evil, which comes from evil. In that sense and we're talking about a different kind of sorrow, not sorrow over tragic events. But the sorrow that comes from evil, that produces, you know, the hangover, the bad feeling, the guilt that comes. Eliminate it from your life. Remove that from your life. And then Ecclesiastes 12, the third "R."
Ecclesiastes 12:1 - "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come. . ." Notice that. I've always found this fascinating that Solomon in spite of everything he did, he didn't advocate that people follow in his footsteps. He didn't say learn the way I did. It's amazed me over the years and certainly there is some validity to this that people who've gone through certain problems certainly can help others. But you know what's happening today? You go to the prisons today, and here's what the prisoners have told me. They say, "It doesn't help to have someone who is a cleaned up drug addict come in and tell us, 'Well, don't use drugs.' The real message they're sending to us: 'Go and use drugs and then you can clean yourself up, and you'll be okay like me. I did it; you can do.'" So a subtle message is being sent: "It's all right to do it for a while, and then you can straighten it out, and you'll be okay."
You know what they said, the best message is someone who can come in here and say, "Look, this is life I've lived. I didn't do that. I didn't follow that way of life. You shouldn't do it either. And you shouldn't follow it." It's a much better message.
It's a more profound message for someone because otherwise with a very angry group of young men which is what we have in prison today, saying, "Wow, you know, I can go out; I can rob and steal and plunder and I can use drugs and alcohol, and you know, I'll get to be thirty or so, and I'll clean my life up, and I'll be fine. No problem. He said to hear that message, you know, this is what they told me, is: it is okay to do it for while while you're young. If that's the message we send to young people, it's the wrong message. It isn't okay. It doesn't work, and you know what, sometimes tomorrow never comes. You need to do it today. You need to do it now. The future is now. That's what Solomon is saying.
Ecclesiastes12:1 - ". . . before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, 'I have no pleasure in them. . .'" You know , people grow up, most people do, and mature, and they look back, and it's - I wish I hadn't done that; I did some foolish things, and we all look on some of those things. But he said the sad part is, when you get to the point and you look back on it, you don't have to feel that way. You don't have to look back and see all of these things. You can do it differently. That's the message Solomon's giving. "I have no pleasure in them."
Verse 2 - "While the sun and the light, the moon and the stars, are not darkened, and the clouds do not return after the rain;
Verse 3 - "In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow down; when the grinders cease because they are few. . ." You know, don't wait till disaster comes. Don't wait until there's some horrible event in your life.
It certainly is true that often someone will change his life or her life because of some terrible tragedy, a death in a family, or some horrible event. You know, Solomon is saying, "If you know the truth, do it before then. Don't wait until then. Do it before these events happen. Do it before there's tragedy. Do it before the tribulation. Do it before all these terrible things are going on." That's what God wants, and that's what we should want.
Verse 3 - "In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow down; when the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look through the windows grow dim;
Verse 4 - "When the doors are shut in the streets, and the sound of grinding is low; when one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of music are brought low.
Verse 5 - "Also they are afraid of height, and of terrors in the way; when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden, and desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets." You know, remember God before then; commit yourself to God before that time. Don't wait for some terrible event in your life to cause you to make the decision. It says:
Verse 6 - "Remember your Creator. . . " So we come back to the "R" again. "Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed. . ." You know, I look around at what we're able to offer, and I look at the ABC program in particular. You know, it's like the silver cord, the golden bowl, the pitcher, you know, before it's shattered, before it's loosed, before the bowl is broken, before . . .you know, bad times come, before there is no ability to do some of the things we can do today. Remember God; remember God; now is the time. The future is now. The future is now. It says: ". . .or the wheel broken at the well.
Verse 7 - "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." And then Solomon concludes this book and this chapter down in Verse 13:
Verse 13 - "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil." It makes sense to be doing it now. It makes sense to take what you've learned and apply it now.
Look at I John 3. The wording in this particular verse says a lot to who we are today, and I really marvel in one sense at the terminology that John used when he says, " now." He says now. I John 3:2.
I John 3:2 - "Beloved, now we are children of God. . ." Now we are children of God. We're not immortal children of God; we haven't been born into God's kingdom yet. We're still struggling with life. We're human beings. We're flesh and blood, but even so, you and I are now children of God. Now children of God. It goes on to say: ". . .it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
So how should we live our lives? We should live it as though we're now children of God, as though we're now in the kingdom of God. No, we don't wait until tomorrow. The future is now.
Solomon gave the three "R's:" rejoice, remove and remember. Rejoice in your youth; remove evil and sorrow from your life and remember God. Now, I don't know of anything better to take away from ABC than those principles. Those are principles to live your life by. It has to be now. You know, you can't say, well, I've got to go take care of this, and you may have to. I've got to go do this in my life, and you may have to. But don't put off committing yourself to God. Don't put off committing yourself to living God's way of life. Now is the time to change your life. Now is the time to commit to God. Now is the time to apply the knowledge that you have learned, whether it be at ABC or growing up in the church.
The song I referred to in the beginning has a profound and haunting chorus: "The cat's in the cradle, and the silver spoon. Little boy blue and the man in the moon. When you coming home, Dad? I don't know when, but we'll get together then. You know, we'll have a good time then." Sandy Chapin wrote about her life as she experienced it when she was growing up. This song cut to the heart of fathers. It's still used today in many, many venues to talk about families. But more than just fathers are affected by this particular principle. It cuts to the heart of everyone who looks back on his life and realizes that the most important things didn't get the attention they deserved. It has been stated that when someone says he doesn't have enough time, he means there are other things he considers more important.
One cannot undo the past, but we can effect the future. In order to do that, each of us as Christians must see the future as now. Now is the time to devote attention to God. Now is the time to get your life in order. Now is the time to take the knowledge you have gained and put it into practice.
I really and truly salute the ABC students here this afternoon, and I salute you for giving up seven months of your life to learn more about God's way. You've proven that it's important to you by being here. You've sacrificed in order to come, and I salute you for that. But I simply say to all of you, and to all of us, now go and prove that it was important by the way you live your life, because for each and every one of us, the future is now.