We think we are in unique times. We are, and we were last year, and the year before, and will be a year from now. The past twelve months have been the most unusual of my life of that which is both strange and familiar. It has been strange in that all the circumstances seem new, and familiar, perhaps, because nothing important has changed.
All living things are in a constant state of change. We are getting stronger or weaker, older and wiser, or older and more foolish. Our choices can help direct the change, but they cannot stop change. It is the constant of life.
As we want to stop change, we once again are confused, and eventually bewildered, because we are attempting to take on a characteristic of God that we cannot attain. He alone does not change as He is the same yesterday today and forever.
His mercies may be new to me every morning because Dave, the finite one, is learning more about the infinite one. I can grow in stature, knowledge, and wisdom, and I should, whereas God cannot. I need to continually work at gaining a proper perspective, whereas God has no perspective. I need to continually align my opinions with truth, whereas God is truth.
I need to plan for the future, whereas God is in the future. For some reason, I need to seek God, to look for Him, even though He is evident and is everywhere.
Since I continually think that my times are unique, I usually live so much in the moment that the futures will neither be prepared for or anticipated. I keep thinking that these unique times shall pass, and, one day I shall pass, my body will rot into the earth from which it came, and my life will be forgotten, as a fog that has cleared the harbor.
Being mindful or being in the moment is like all good things in that it could be something that drives us to be who we should be, or it blinds us from being who we could be.
Throughout the years, I have had several surgeries. Each of them demanded that I take recovery time. Each setback demanded attention, and if I would focus on the instructions of my doctors and therapists, I could look forward to a better and less painful future. I needed to focus on the moment because I was focused on the future. If I focus on the future alone, I miss what is happening in the moments. If I divorce the future from the moment, I have allowed my focus to fog my reason, and will be ill- prepared for what is to come.
The “purists” who talk about always being mindful or always being focused on the future have missed the delicate balancing act that creates the “awe” in life.
In reality, we who struggle with narcissism are continually focused on the moment, and how the moment benefits, honors, and pleases us. If we focus on the future, we focus on how the future will benefit us, and thereby have devolved a secret, yet erosive style that breeds disappointment and regret.
When we live waiting for the circumstances to change, we will find that they will change, with or without us, and with or without our efforts. Positive change is surrounded by what does not change, and negative change is dependent upon what changes. My health, fortune, and even my freedom will one day change. The decisions I make during those tough transitional times will be based on my ability to be dual focused on both the world in which I live, and the world as it should be and one day will be.
During the now infamous COVID19 national shutdown, I wanted to immediately make a video telling our supporters how this national shutdown is affecting the various ministries in which we have been privileged to invest our lives. Yet, after thought and prayer, I realized that all our friends knew what we were going through as they were going through the same. I thought more about how my thinking reflected the moment, a piece of the eternal pie, but not the whole, how I was mired in self-thinking, and, even though every situation was different, each was the same, and my concern needed to now as always be in honoring God and thinking of others, while preparing for the future we think we will have.
Our rest in life comes from the object of our faith, not the circumstances. If the object of our faith is our government, medical professionals, teachers, or pastors, we will be disappointed. If our faith is in Him who does not change, we will be fine, and we will see that in the long run, nothing important has changed.
The adverse circumstances we face reveals what we believe, and about in whom we believe. If we do not like what has been revealed, we need to adjust both our thinking and our lives.
In a strange way, we can recklessly alter the future by continually focusing on the crisis du jour, and waiting for it to pass, rather than using it to create the future.
All that has happened, is happening, and will happen is under the controlling hand of God, and it has not taken Him by surprise. If we find ourselves in the middle of a crisis for which we were not prepared, then we were not listening during the “good” times when God was preparing us such as time as this.
When we suffer a heart attack because of poor exercise and eating habits, it is too late to eat right and begin an exercise program, for the damage is already done. It was the good times that demanded us to think about the end times, yet we did not because we felt we could not, which is one of the ways we lie to ourselves.
Healthy people, originally made from clay, live a faith rest life that has been formulated in the good times and fired in the kiln of adversity. Adversity happens to all, regardless of who they are and where they live, and it will either prove you right or destroy you.
For now, the choice is ours.
No comments:
Post a Comment