Dear All of Us,
We who
gather here
every week
are from umpteen
lands and time zones
around our shared orb.
How is it in your
land and zone
Right Now?
How Right is the
Now
there?
For us here
in The States
it's time
to tinker with time
yet again,
the semi-annual
rock-the-clock,
Spring Forward,
Fall Back.
It confuses our
circadian rhythms,
scrambles our schedules,
throws us off stride,
makes our Now
not at all just Right.
In a vastly broader way,
we tinker with time
to the peril of
our spiritual lives.
It upsets, throws into
confusion and conflict
our Right Now when
we pile on past,
we fuss with future
be they minutes, months,
years.
Neither is native to
NOW.
Right Now
is the only NOW there is.
Yes,
we need
to reference the past
and anticipate the future.
Right now
I can pay the rent
(as crazy as it is here
in Wahington, DC!!)
because in the past
I saved for my
future retirement.
Yes,
"Those who
cannot remember
the past
are condemned
to repeat it".
George Santayana
Worldwide we're
painfully relearning
the reality
of that in a not so
Right Now.
Future Fuss
does the same thing
the other way round.
It trys to take us
where we can't go.
And that is
a frustrating
contradiction.
Past or future belong
there not here.
Compulsions
to relive past,
pre-live future,
crowd out, deplete,
stall, stymie, steal
our Right Now.
Upshot:
We're like Gulliver,
Stop Strapped Supine.
In our case,
we get immobilized by
strands upon strands of
preoccupations past,
frettings future.
A CAVEAT:
Past trauma,
future anxiety,
are
psychological
concerns.
They need to be
to be God addressed
with professional help
in our Right Now.
We exist in God's
Eternal Now.
We experience it
moment by moment.
That's why
it is essential
To Live
In The Moment,
In The Now.
If we drag
all sorts
of moments
from the past and
anticipated ones
from the future
into our now
we miss
the moment
of God's
Right Now
To miss God's
Right Now
is
to miss
what God
would
be and do
in it with us.
We find ourselves
tied down
by inert strands
that lack
currency,
vitality,
that don't allow
the dynamic
flow of God
in our
Right Now.
There are other
time traps that
restrain us
from presence
in our Right Now.
Multiplying
attention centers
at the same time
limits now focus to near
spiritual/psychic blindness.
- taking on the phone
while checking
an article online,
cooking supper,
having a glass of wine,
supervising
a child's homework,
checking on
the cloth's dryer,
scanning texts,
all at the same time.
That blinds us to our
Right Now.
Our bodies are there
but we aren't.
- unfortunately,
that's not
as much of
an exaggeration
as it might seem.
Media addiction
is unbodied,
fluff at best,
but mostly it is
faux folly and
sinister dishonesty.
It dopes us dull,
scatters our souls
blocking clarity to
the actual
in real time
Right Now.
A good part
of the ascetics
in our spiritual life
is to discipline away
those distractions,
to stay in the moment.
That's where
God is and as God is.
That positions us
to be one with God.
We do everything
together:
cook supper,
drive to work,
pay bills,
care for the earth,
work for justice,
read a novel,
are patient with a
run at the mouther,
do Lectio Divina,
are generous
with the needy,
put heart and soul
into our
spiritual community,
hike, paint, sing,
close the door and pray,
write a spirituality blog
every week,
rock a baby to sleep
- Read this blog
out loud and
the baby will be in
slumberland
within one minute,
just like many older
reader/dozers-
guaranteed :)
We don't find God.
We accept God
in the moments
of the
RIGHT NOW.
To live in
The Presence of God
is to live in the present
HOWEVER
IT WRAPS ITSELF
"This is the day
the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and
be glad in it."
Psalm 118: 24
Not yesterday
Not tomorrow
Today
Our moment
in God's
Eternal Now
RIGHT NOW
******
WELCOME
TO THOSE FAR
TO THOSE CLOSE
IN OUR SHARED
RIGHT NOW
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THANKS FOR
THIS CHANNCE
TO SHARE
SEE YOU NEXT WEEK
LOVE TO ALL
GOD BLESS
JOHN FRANK
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
******
