Ryan's Ramblings

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal… in Christ Jesus.
—Philippians 3:13-14, NIV

A few weeks ago my wife and I had what I can only describe as a surreal experience.

Our daughter and son-in-law lead worship at a church near us, and we couldn’t make the service that Sunday, so we did what so many of us do now—we watched the livestream on YouTube.

My wife cued it up on our TV, and there we were, sitting comfortably on the couch, worshiping from home. It felt live. Current. Present.

Or so we thought…

As we watched, we noticed a couple of things. My son-in-law had a fresh haircut. We had just been with him the day before, so we commented on his dedication—wow, he must have gone to the barber early Sunday morning. (Their service isn’t until later in the afternoon.)

Then we noticed our daughter was wearing glasses. She only does that once in a while. She hadn’t been wearing them the day before, and we found ourselves wondering why she had them on that day.

The service itself was meaningful. The music was great—they always do so well. We were engaged—emotionally, spiritually, relationally. Everything about it felt real-time…live.

The next day I went to get a haircut. My son-in-law and I share the same barber. As the barber and I talked, I mentioned how sharp Pedro’s haircut looked on Sunday. The barber looked puzzled.

He said, “I haven’t cut his hair yet. He’s scheduled for next week.”

Huh?

At first, I assumed there was some confusion. But over the course of the week, the truth slowly came into focus. The church hadn’t actually livestreamed that Sunday. My wife had unknowingly pulled up a service from a couple of months earlier—back when Pedro’s hair was shorter and our daughter wore her glasses regularly.

We thought we were watching something live. But we were living inside old footage.

When we told our kids, they laughed—hard. And rightly so. We deserved it. But after the laughter faded, the moment stayed with me. Because here’s the strange thing:

That old service shaped our present reality.

It affected our conversations. Our assumptions. Our reactions. Even our emotions. We responded sincerely—to something that wasn’t actually happening. And I wonder how often we do the same thing spiritually.

How often do we live as if the truest reality is what we can see, replay, or assume? How often are we shaped by the constant churn of headlines—current concerns, familiar fears dressed up as breaking news, old wounds reopened again and again—rather than by what God is doing now?

Scripture reminds us that the most real world is not always the most visible one.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
(2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV)

There are principalities and powers. There is brokenness and resistance. But there is also Jesus—present, reigning, interceding. There is a Father who loves us. There is heaven nearer than we think. There is hope that is not outdated.

Sometimes we live as if grace is old footage. As if resurrection power was for another time. As if the nearness of God is something we remember rather than experience. But the gospel is not a replay. Jesus is not archived. The Spirit is not delayed. The Kingdom of God is not buffering.

The truest reality is not behind us. And it’s not just on the screen in front of us. It is found in Him.

That’s why Paul could speak of letting go of what lies behind and pressing on toward what lies ahead—not because the past didn’t matter, but because it no longer defined him. Our eyes and hearts are meant to be fixed on Jesus—not as a memory, not as a concept, but as reality itself.

He is the truly live presence of God.

When our eyes are fixed on Him, we are no longer living in yesterday’s story or borrowed assumptions. He becomes our present reality. We are awake to what is actually happening. Now.

He is not merely remembered. He is encountered.

Jesus is very much alive. And in Him, so are we.