Thursday, April 12, 2007

The Joy of the Moment

The ultimate insight is the outcome of moments when we are stirred beyond words, of instants of wonder, awe, praise, fear, trembling and radical armament; of awareness of grandeur, of perceptions we can grasp but are unable to convey, of discoveries of the unknown, of moments in which we abandon the pretense of being acquainted with the world, of knowledge by inacquaintance. It is at the climax of such moments that we attain the certainty that life has meaning, that time is more than evanescence, that beyond all being there is someone who cares.

- Abraham Heschel, God in Search of Man

There are times when life seems to be defined not by events, but by my frantic movement from one event to the next. I realized this morning that I have allowed schedule and efficiency to rob me of moments meant to be enjoyed as gifts.

There is a point where maturity is not measured by mastery of material but mastery of time. Where efficiency gives way to simply experiencing the moment. This is not a promotion of laziness, just an awareness that each moment matters. If God intentionally identified Himself as the "I Am" (i.e. not "I was" or "I will be", but the every present now) I must be mindful of the moment if I'm going to be mindful of Him. I must also be present to reality, not fantasy. Living in the moment is not and escape from responsibility, but rather an embracing of it. The beauty of the sovereignty of God is that it infuses every moment with meaning and significance.

Today...I'm striving to live in the moment and the present...not in what was or what might be, but what is.

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