Now is the Time

“The value of a moment is immeasurable.

The power of just ONE moment can propel you to success and happiness or chain you to failure and misery.” 

(Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free)

I remember it with surprising clarity - an October morning five years ago.

I had recently left the Armena parish to pursue the rather nebulous idea of facilitating retreats on the theme of "what makes life meaningful"; to that end I was busying myself writing presentation material. I recall sitting at our kitchen table, sipping tea and glancing idly out the window (trying to avoid the writers block I was experiencing). That great female green ash tree of ours was dancing with the fall breezes, and in the wake of her steps she showered golden leaves. For a moment, or perhaps a lifetime, I was caught by the simple beauty of those falling leaves, painted upon the canvas of a brilliant blue sky. 

Time stood still and I was lost in that gentle dance of gilded leaves and autumn sunshine. Even now, thinking back on it, I lose myself in the memory. 

Have you ever experienced a perfect moment? A spot in time that was completely filled with peace, where for just a heartbeat the world slowed down; where you were bathed with the knowledge that all was well, love surrounded you and everything was unfolding just right? I know of only two words, though even they are inadequate (as human language always is regarding the sublime) to describe the stillness I felt - Joy and Peace; utter joy and peace.

In the midst of life racing by at ultrasonic speeds, memories slipping past the window of my mind in a day-to-day blur, I long for the train of my being to slow down again like it did that October morning. I am hungry for stillness, for the sheer innocence of loosing myself in sunlight and autumn leaves; like a baby watching a mobile swaying gently above it's head, no cares, no thoughts, just being there and taking in the colors and sounds and wonder of life.

"But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations

that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God.

The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing!"

(Romans 13.11 - "The Message")

I don't know that I can create such perfect moments - making time slow down, eternity erupting into reality. Still, I can seek to be present to the gift of this moment, this now. For if I am to experience God it will not be in yesterday's receding memories or tomorrow's uncertain fantasies. Perfect love, perfect comfort, perfect grace reaches for us through the breath of right now. Typing a devotion, eating breakfast, racing to get the child to the sitters, navigating traffic, confronting someone angry, grieving over unwanted news of a diagnosis, facing a day of pleasure, of pain -  any of it and all that life unfolds before us in the ordinary of our lives... these ARE our perfect moments. Love suffuses right now. Peace surrounds right now. Christ is standing beside us- right now. 

I glance out the office window; the weeping birch sways in the chill morning wind and a leaf falls...

I leave the last word to Jesus, the Master of now:

“Be dressed, ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.”

(Luke 12.35 - NIV)

Pax,

Pastor Bill

NOW

[Originally published October 3, 2012]

Do You Hear What I Hear?

"Stay where you're to, 'til I come where you're at.

(East-coast saying quoted in recent CBC news article)

Pardon?!

Could you say that again please? While on a trip to Newfoundland I had an experience in which I heard someone speaking English, but I did not have a clue as to what they were saying. I was in a little cafe having pie and coffee and had just asked my waiter for directions to a nearby home for sale. The fellow politely answered... but I had no idea what he'd said. "Pardon me," I said, "could you say that again please?" He actually repeated himself two more times before I simply said thank you and acknowledged defeat. My friend sharing pie and coffee with me was as clueless as I regarding any useful translation of the "Newfie-isms" we'd just heard. The waiter knew what he was saying, but we could not penetrate the fog of his accent.

"Whoever has ears, let them hear"

(Matthew 11.15)

Perhaps it is sometimes this way with Jesus' words. He speaks but I don't always hear what he is saying and I say, "pardon?" and He says it again, and I still don't understand. You see, the culture in which I'm embedded does not really comprehend "love your enemy" and "this is my commandment that you love one another" and "forgive." Consequently my ears have difficulty with the compassion-accent and the faith-in-God accent that colors Jesus' voice. He is saying things that have the potential to radically change how I live my life, but what He says is in contradiction to the language that I have learned from our media, our social conventions and the norms of our North American lifestyle.

If I was to truly hear Jesus' most basic message of faith in God, kindness to our neighbor, and love to those who have forgotten that they were created as a gift of love - if I really heard this and lived it out, and we all lived it out - something crazy would happen on this earth. We might just begin to see that we are beautifully sculpted in God's image; we might discover the potential woven into us at Creation by our Creator. If we could only HEAR Jesus perhaps we would be able to address the poverty and war and violence of our deaf world. 

Alas for our un-hearing ears. 

Yet, sometimes our ears do hear, albeit a muffled sound, the sweet ringing of the Christ's voice. Kindness breaks out unexpectedly; racism is overcome; healing and forgiveness blossom; the hungry eat. There is hope for us, and that hope is grounded in God's patience and Christ's Spirit of gentleness. Jesus will keep speaking so that we can listen again and again saying, "pardon, I didn't quite catch that."

I leave the last word to the Master speaker:

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine 

and puts them into practice

is like a wise man who built his house on the rock."

(Matthew 7.24)

Pax

Pastor Bill

Listen

Be still

a voice

whispers

love

and

be loved

Breathe

deeply

and

hear

Love's

voice

[First published September 26, 2012]