Stop, breathe, live: what if the chase for a "better future" is stealing your life?

"Are you here? Or are you still just waiting for life to start?"

You probably know this. You're sitting down. You have time. Everything around you is fine. And yet... you don't feel okay. It's not pain, and it's not exactly sadness either. More like a strange emptiness. No appetite for anything. Questions with no answers. So you start searching. Maybe a motivational book. Maybe a podcast. Something to "kick you into gear." Because there just has to be something that will finally move me forward...

That's exactly the moment it started for me too. It was a moment on the terrace. Silence. And suddenly — a voice. Not from my phone, not from a podcast, but from within: "Don't search. Just be present." And in that moment it hit me too.

Chasing happiness? A mirage

We live in a culture that pushes us toward performance. "Make more. Be more. Hustle harder." Success, status, perfection — everything is set up so that happiness is always just around the corner. Once you finish school. Once you fall in love. Once you earn more. Once you finally change...

But what if — that "once" never comes? What if that's exactly the trap that keeps us outside of reality?

In the Bible, specifically in the book of Ecclesiastes, we read about a man who went after all these things. He tried everything — wealth, fame, women, projects, wine, art. Everything that should have fulfilled him. And the result?

He hated life. Emptiness. Chasing after the wind.

How demons plan your life

C. S. Lewis, in his book The Screwtape Letters, describes correspondence between two demons. One of them says: "We must lead people to live in the future." Why? Because the future is controllable — full of fears, desires, and illusions. The present? That belongs to God. The past holds gratitude. But the future? That's where there's room for manipulation.

And that's exactly how people live today.

We scroll, we plan, we project. But we don't live.

God is here and now

That's not just a phrase.

The author of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes says: "He has made everything beautiful in its time..." Not tomorrow. Not "once you're more spiritually mature." Not after five worship songs and three prayers. Now. In this very moment.

Jesus put it even more sharply: "The kingdom of God is among you."

Not: "It's coming someday."

But: "It's already here."

And that might be the most revolutionary message in all of Jesus's teaching. Not that God will invite you into heaven at some point in the future. But that he's inviting you today — to himself. Into the present. Into joy. Into reality.

So what can you do about it?

You don't need to get up tomorrow at 5 a.m. and climb Mount Sinai. You don't have to stop being someone who loves Netflix or pizza. All you need to do is one thing:

Stop. And be here.

Ask yourself:

• What am I really feeling right now?
• What do I hear, what do I see?
• Could this moment be holy — with God?

And above all: Can I experience God today — without being perfect?

The answer is simple. Yes.

In conclusion: time as disguised eternity

A Jewish rabbi once said: "Those who are with God experience time as eternity in disguise."

And that's exactly it. You weren't created to nonstop grind toward a better version of yourself. You were created for relationship. For deep presence.