The Sacrament of the Present Moment

We have a lot of pain in this life. There is physical pain, like when you throw a bowling ball wrong and have it twist off a piece of your fingernail; and emotional pain, like when you feel alone or fearful; and mental pain, like when you fear the physical or emotional pain that is to come; and sometimes all of them at once, like when you have to go to the dentist.

We have a lot of reasons to worry and to think about our future, where our lives will lead us. This comes naturally to us. Scientists are now telling us that our brains are primarily designed to predict the future.

Ps. 118:24 reads - "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Increasingly, I find this scripture to be important. It's a motif found throughout the Bible. Like...

* Today is the day of salvation...
* Now is the time to worship...
* This is the day the Lord has made...

Arguably, this moment... right now... is the moment of all moments. It is not to be avoided (as if we could) or gotten-past because we are on to better things. I like how Greg Boyd puts this:

"God is the God of the living, not the God of the already-past or the not-yet-present. He's the great "I AM," not the great "I was" or the great "I will be." He's been present for every moment in the past, for which we can be thankful, and he'll be present at every moment in the future, which gives us great hope. But he's only alive and active now, in the present - which is the only thing that's real." (Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now, 15)

Now, for example, God loves you. This core Jesus-truth is meant to be not a mere theoretical truth but an experiential reality. This is cool because it is experience, not theory, that breeds conviction. So right now, "remind yourself that you are submerged in God's love." (Ib., 19) Dwell with God who makes his dwelling place in you 24/7. God is in the house of "you" right now. Why not say "Hi?"

Those who practice attending to God in every now-moment are the ones who will do great things for God in the future. Non-attendance now means failure tomorrow. And, God could grant one of those watershed-life-changing now-moments... now. Read history to verify the truth of this last statement. Therefore attend. Raise your hand and say "Present, Lord."

Boyd says that "now is where God lives." (Ib., 21) Missionary Frank Laubach encourages us to "Make a new beginning." Boyd writes: "Wake up to God's presence in this moment now." 17th-century monk Jean-Pierre de Caussade called this "the sacrament of the present moment." We attend to God now so we can know God now, and so we can be different in the next moment.

Speaking for myself personally, I am a wuss when it comes to physical pain, and I'm a sucker for emotional pain, and I put a lot of mental pain on myself. The devil likes to try to steal my joy whenever I let him. Yesterday, I was driving home with a sore thumb after a terrific weekend. I was joyful, and listening to worship music. Yet my praises were not enough to keep the devil away, to prevent him from reminding me of what I do not have, of placing a pang of emotional hurt into my heart. He knows that that will trigger my mind into overdrive, and I'll start that slow spiral into self-induced pity and panic by overthinking a situation. It was a perfectly designed trap for me on all three levels of pain. And all three were lies.

That's right, devil, it didn't work that time, did it? I hope my spoken Word of God and subsequent loud praises sent you running in pain yourself. "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4). God is with me now. He doesn't leave me alone to go prepare my future - He stays beside me to work on my present.

So the next time you are sitting in the dentist's chair (literally or metaphorically) and the oral surgeon is about to drill and tells you, "You'll now feel some vibration," do not decide to just to hang on and long for this particular now-experience to be over. I don't believe that God says, in that moment, "Excuse me, I'll be back when the tooth is out." Instead, my ever-present God suggests that it would be good to take this time to pray for some other people that He has on His mind, and that now would be a good time since you have nothing else to do. So, fight the enemy by praying for some specific friends that you care for very much.

If you are like me, you need God now and not in some distant future. And while it is very good to recount our past experiences with God, it is better to experience God now. God is not like some person we used to live with but is no longer with us. Nor is God living in some far-off land but making plans to visit us in a few years. God calls himself "Emmanuel." God with us. God with you. In the now.