Living in the moment

Living in the moment

Do you get through the week so that you can enjoy the weekend only to feel a sense of loss/disappointment on Sunday night because the weekend failed to deliver? Do you put up with the drudgery of the everyday for the sake of the overseas trip coming up later in the year? Do you half-think that if only you can find the right girl then your life would really begin? Or will money make everything alright. Is it a car, a footy match or a movie that your imagination has fixed itself on?

If the answer to any of these is 'yes' then you are not living in the "now" and you are not alone. Most people don't live in the moment.

Personal story: expectation of fulfillment when new job commenced…

The past is another tempting place to live. Do you sometimes travel backwards through time and affix that inward eye on some fond memory? Do you reminisce of great-times past, perhaps even embellish them a little in the process. This can stop you moving forward really stunting your growth and isolate you from others. But we all do it to some extent. The optimists put a positive spin on their memories and pessimists a negative spin.

If the answer to any of these questions is 'yes' then you are not living in the now and you would not be alone. Most people don't live in the moment.

Personal story: K-A morning sickness…if only I could return to the days when I didn't have kids…

Then there's fantasy. This is a marvelous place to escape to if you have a good imagination. You can be anyone, do anything without incurring cost. But of course, it's not real and one can easily become addicted. Movies and books are built to feed this temptation. How often have you escaped the boringness of your life by distracting yourself by a good story or an action movie? In your mind, do women just want to tear your clothes off? Can you create the sense of contentment and fulfillment using your imagination? If so, it doesn't usually last long as reality has a habit of reminding us of our true position in life.

Personal story: I am addicted to reading…when the going get tough I read more…

Most people don't live in the moment. They live in the past, in the future, or in a fantasy. Why is this?

Well, when we are not living as we are supposed to…life is colourless, boring, limited, fruitless, meaningless, souring and numbing. Oh course the past was better and the future brighter. And should these places ever fail us, our imagination can construct a place where we take centre stage…we make the rules. Who would want to live in the present?

This is my message tonight: the present is the only honest place to live. Step one to becoming a spiritual man who grows even to completion begins with squarely facing the facts. Don't dull yourselves by pressing down and covering over the way things are. 'fess up and admit to yourself and to God that your life is not as it should or could be. This is the only to getting out of the rut we're all inclined to fall into.

Step two is to establish a vision for you life that is achievable and conforms to the pattern and form we see in the life of Christ.

The bible has plently to say on the topic of living in the moment…

Quotes from the bible

• 1 Cor 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
• Hebrews 13:5 "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.""
• 1 Thes 4:11 "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."
• Phil 4:11-13 "…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

We should also consider the legacy of those bright souls who have gone before us fully living in the moment. Let's look at a two of these…

Brother Lawrence

He began life as Nicholas Herman, born to peasant parents in Lorraine, France. As a young man, his poverty forced him into joining the army, and thus he was guaranteed meals and a small stipend.

Sometime later, an injury forced his retirement from the army, and after a stint as a footman, he sought a place where he could suffer for his failures. He thus entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Paris as Brother Lawrence.

He was assigned to the monastery kitchen where, amidst the tedious chores of cooking and cleaning at the constant bidding of his superiors, he developed his rule of spirituality and work.

For Brother Lawrence, "common business," no matter how mundane or routine, was the medium of God's love. The issue was not the sacredness or worldly status of the task but the motivation behind it. "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."

There he spent the rest of his 80 years, dying in relative obscurity and pain and perfect joy.

Quotes from Practicing the presence of God

• "We must do our business faithfully, without trouble or disquiet, recalling our mind to God mildly, and with tranquility, as often as we find it wandering from him."
• "We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed."
• "There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God."

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa (August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. For over forty years, she ministered to the needs of the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying of Calcutta. As her religious order grew she expanded her ministry to other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and designated "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".

Quotes from Mother Teresa

• "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
• "Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing."
• "Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting."
• "The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy."

So let us not make the mistake of living dumbly for some unrealized future state or mournfully live in regret of our lost past. Let us not skip into fantasy every time things get too boring or too difficult. Let's be men and face "now" squarely making even the mundane and ordinary things a spiritual act.

Whatever we do, let's do it for the glory of God.