Present to the Present
October 14, 2008
I cannot recount all the times I wished I could time travel. It’s tempting to go back in time to those important and interesting moments of history. To see first hand the American West before Louis and Clark or to see the birth and growth of the Early Church or even the first moon landing. However, as I suspect is true for most of us, I am less interested in going back to view events in our corporate history than I am in changing some of my own. How far back would I go? In some cases ten minutes or even ten seconds would be enough. Other times I think that ten months or ten years ago would allow me to do everything over again the right way.
Alas, God doesn’t give us time machines. In fact, he doesn’t seem interested in changing the past. However, God does seem especially interested in the redemption of our present. How can we remain present to the “present”?
Scripture teaches that we only have this day. James tells us that we should make our plans for the future carefully in order that we not be trapped by our plans when they get changed. So the present is what we’ve got to work with. The “now” is the only place (Or should we say time?) where we are going to experience God. If there is no going back how shall we make the best of the now?
“Oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy,
that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days.”
This little phrase from Psalm 90, and repeated in the Midday office of the Celtic Daily Prayer, teaches us to seek our satisfaction with God early, whether early in the day, early in our lives, or, more appropriately: right now! Enjoying the mercy of God, his manifest love through Christ, orients us in such a way as to remove regret.
As Georges related on Monday, being present is the essential component to making the most of the repetitive nature of the CDP. The repetition of prayer becomes a beautiful and valuable thing when engaged in fully with one’s heart, soul and strength. One is present by being fully and completely in the here and now. In the rush of our lives we miss out on our relationship with God because we are living too much in the past, too much in the future and not enough in the now.
Slowing down, three or four times a day, entering into the “sacrament of the present moment” allows us to be where God is once again. In the present enjoying his presence and participating in his work of redeeming and remaking creation. Redeeming our time by being present to God in time.
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