Where Are We on God's Time Clock?
“It is always now! I actually want to talk today about death, now most of us do our best to not to think about death but there's always part of our minds that knows this can’t go on forever part of us always knows that we're just a doctor's visit away or a phone call away from being starkly reminded with the fact of our own mortality or of those closest to us now. I'm sure many of you in this room have experienced this in some form you must know how uncanny it is to suddenly be thrown out of the normal course of your life and just be given the full time job of not dying or caring for someone who is. But the one thing people tend to realize at moments like this is that they wasted a lot of time when life was normal and it's not just what they, it's not just what they did with their time, it's not just that they spent too much time working or compulsively checking email it's that they cared about the wrong things. They regret what they cared about, their attention was bound up in petty concerns year after year when life was normal and this is a paradox of course because we all know this epiphany is coming. I mean, don't you know this is coming?
Don't you know there's going to come a day when you'll be sick or someone close to you will die and you'll look back at the kinds of things that captured your attention and you'll think, " what, what was I doing?" You know this, and yet if you're like most people, you'll spend most of your time in life tacitly presuming you'll live forever, it's like watching a bad movie for the fourth time or bickering with your spouse. I mean this, these things only makes sense in light of eternity there better be a heaven if we're gonna waste our time like that there are ways to really live in the present moment what what's the alternative? ….” Sam Harris
See the complete 5 minute video on Youtube, “It is Always Now.” Sam Harris (an Atheist by the way). Sam Harris is an Atheist that at one time claimed Christianity. This video in my opinion has decidedly Christian leanings.
There will come a day when you and I will have no tomorrow.
When we slow down, when we stop listening to all the noise around us, when we intentionally stop seeking distraction from the reality of our lives we must concede that NOW is all we have. Do you ever stop, reflect and consider this? Our memories are now a thought, the reality of them, although perpetuated by tokens or artifacts of that time no longer exist. The people we were at the time of those memories do not exist either. We have changed mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically for good or ill. Yet the self we know as US remains, but we are very different. Science has shown us that our bodily cells actually replace themselves every 7 years or so. We age and if we are permitted the gift of advanced age our bodies decay, bound up in the futility and decay of creation, decrepitude and complete breakdown occurs. Our spirit created and given by God returns to him, we become disembodied, for a time.
Being present in the Now of our lives is closely linked with being reflective and contemplative and not wasting the present moment we are in. This is very difficult and the busyness and distractions of life push back against this.
We must learn to reflect with wisdom on what lies behind and look at what lies ahead. This is both a spiritual and a life skill born of time and wisdom. Even in the most difficult of circumstances we can be reflective of our life. Embrace the life you have wholeheartedly with joyful acceptance and not grudging obedience. Embracing means gladly receiving and even welcoming whatever the Lord gives you, even when it wasn’t in your plans. It means being fully present, living in the now, finding joy in the moment, and not longing for what’s past or wishing for what may lie ahead.