Now! 1-2-07

Happy New Year everybody! I hope the year has gotten off to a good start for all of you.

Typically, people use the beginning of the new year to evaluate their lives, make resolutions about how they’re going to change, etc. There’s nothing wrong with this (especially if it works!), but to be honest with you, I’m not much of a fan of this sort of thinking. There’s a number of reasons why, but the most important one is that I believe an over-emphasis on one particular commitment day may distract us from the most important factor that brings about change in our life: namely, living in the present moment.

Think about this: your life is nothing except a series of present moments strung together. Life is always in the now. Everything else is an abstraction. This now – right this second – is the only thing that is really real… and it just passed. Now this moment –right now – is the only thing that is really real. And so it is for the sum total of your life. You see, the quality of your life is nothing over and above the quality of the “nows” that you live. And this now – not January 1st 2007, nor January 1st 2008 – but this now is the only now you can do anything about.

So, in this light, the only important resolution is the one you’re making now… and now… and now. Resolve to live this moment fully awake…and now this one. Resolve to remain conscious of God’s loving presence pressing in on you this moment… and now this one. Resolve to remain aware of your central mission to love God, yourself, and all other people this moment, and now this one… and now this one.

We can’t “live in love as we are loved “ (Eph. 5.1-2) in the abstract. We “live in love as we are loved “only insofar as we are receiving and manifesting love in the present – right now… and now.

So, I really don’t care what you did or didn’t pledge on January 1st. I just remind you – as I am continually reminding myself – to stay awake, not in “this coming year,” but simply in “this present moment.” For this year, like every year, is nothing over and above a series of present moments. And the only one that is real is this one… and now this one.

Stay awake.
And be Blessed.
Matt. 6:34.