Rest in Eternity Now
Spirituality has a few essentials to it. One of them is the concept of being fully present in the moment of “NOW”. There are so many pitfalls to our human awareness because we so often stray from the present moment. Much of our personality has been re-designed through our past experiences, and if we allow destructive past experiences to affect us today, we often are missing out on so much human connection, truth, presence, power and peace. Some say we cannot know God if we are hindered by our past - we are not living our true selves – because we are wearing protective covers over our true beings. I believe this to be partially true. We see more dimly the presence of God the more our past clouds our soul. God is always able to be known, we need only desire to.
But we often protect our true beings from past pains; we learn to guard ourselves from what may happen again. And, yet, our true beings need to be vulnerable in order to fully know God. This does not mean we need to allow ourselves to be used and abused, it means we learn and live in grace and not harden our hearts and live in fear. The part of our soul which wears a cloak of protection from the past is also guarded against the power that God has to be with us fully.
There is also another hindrance to being in the present knowing God, and that is worrying about the future. We do need to be able to plan ahead, make goals, look forward to events, but worry is such a waste of time and blocks the confidence we have that God will be with us now and forever. When we worry about something, we are expressing a doubt that God may be with us then. And often worry keeps us from being ABLE to imagine solutions in the present.
So, being in the NOW is very hard to do. And it is wrought with complications and dangers. I love this article from a year ago by Richard A. Mueller, a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley:
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/09/27/495608371/now-and-the-physics-of-time
From this article:
Time is elusive and enigmatic. The moment now is ephemeral.
Einstein's quandary was described by Rudolf Carnap:
"Einstein said the problem of the Now worried him seriously. He explained that the experience of the Now means something special for man, something essentially different from the past and the future, but that this important difference does not and cannot occur within physics. That this experience cannot be grasped by science seemed to him a matter of painful but inevitable resignation. So he concluded 'that there is something essential about the Now which is just outside the realm of science.'"
For me, the mystery of time – of the NOW - connects right into the concept of ETERNITY – of God being the ALPHA and OMEGA! And soon our church will be experiencing All Saints’ Day (November 5th) as well as Eternity Sunday – the final Sunday of the Church year (November 26th). It is this time of year that we watch the glorious and beautiful death of the leaves from our trees, and plants, going into hibernation so they can bloom again in the spring. Time is contemplated NOW.
And for me, I am so grateful that our God is a God of all time and space. So I can go into the past with God and be healed and empowered. I can catch myself worrying about the future and let it go, in trust and gratitude. But what is most vital to me is that I can be in the ever elusive NOW with God and discover a peace, a power, a comfort ~ that restores my soul like no nap or vacation ever could.
I pray for each One who reads this. I pray for this Town. I pray for this State. I pray for this Nation. I pray for this World. I pray for this Universe. I pray for all the Universes that are now or ever will be, and in doing so, I am part of eternity NOW. From thence my strength comes.
Spirituality has a few essentials to it. One of them is the concept of being fully present in the moment of “NOW”. There are so many pitfalls to our human awareness because we so often stray from the present moment. Much of our personality has been re-designed through our past experiences, and if we allow destructive past experiences to affect us today, we often are missing out on so much human connection, truth, presence, power and peace. Some say we cannot know God if we are hindered by our past - we are not living our true selves – because we are wearing protective covers over our true beings. I believe this to be partially true. We see more dimly the presence of God the more our past clouds our soul. God is always able to be known, we need only desire to.
But we often protect our true beings from past pains; we learn to guard ourselves from what may happen again. And, yet, our true beings need to be vulnerable in order to fully know God. This does not mean we need to allow ourselves to be used and abused, it means we learn and live in grace and not harden our hearts and live in fear. The part of our soul which wears a cloak of protection from the past is also guarded against the power that God has to be with us fully.
There is also another hindrance to being in the present knowing God, and that is worrying about the future. We do need to be able to plan ahead, make goals, look forward to events, but worry is such a waste of time and blocks the confidence we have that God will be with us now and forever. When we worry about something, we are expressing a doubt that God may be with us then. And often worry keeps us from being ABLE to imagine solutions in the present.
So, being in the NOW is very hard to do. And it is wrought with complications and dangers. I love this article from a year ago by Richard A. Mueller, a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley:
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/09/27/495608371/now-and-the-physics-of-time
From this article:
Time is elusive and enigmatic. The moment now is ephemeral.
Einstein's quandary was described by Rudolf Carnap:
"Einstein said the problem of the Now worried him seriously. He explained that the experience of the Now means something special for man, something essentially different from the past and the future, but that this important difference does not and cannot occur within physics. That this experience cannot be grasped by science seemed to him a matter of painful but inevitable resignation. So he concluded 'that there is something essential about the Now which is just outside the realm of science.'"
For me, the mystery of time – of the NOW - connects right into the concept of ETERNITY – of God being the ALPHA and OMEGA! And soon our church will be experiencing All Saints’ Day (November 5th) as well as Eternity Sunday – the final Sunday of the Church year (November 26th). It is this time of year that we watch the glorious and beautiful death of the leaves from our trees, and plants, going into hibernation so they can bloom again in the spring. Time is contemplated NOW.
And for me, I am so grateful that our God is a God of all time and space. So I can go into the past with God and be healed and empowered. I can catch myself worrying about the future and let it go, in trust and gratitude. But what is most vital to me is that I can be in the ever elusive NOW with God and discover a peace, a power, a comfort ~ that restores my soul like no nap or vacation ever could.
I pray for each One who reads this. I pray for this Town. I pray for this State. I pray for this Nation. I pray for this World. I pray for this Universe. I pray for all the Universes that are now or ever will be, and in doing so, I am part of eternity NOW. From thence my strength comes.
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