If this is the first time you’ve been to my site – Welcome. I’m glad you are here.
It’s not often that I write deep blogs about faith or about the practice of prayer. I realize many of my readers aren’t practicing Christians and I’ve not wanted Fragments to get boxed in as a blog about faith, or religion in specific. So, I’ve kept my comments about my faith more limited and general.
However, lately I’ve been reflecting on something so definite that I can’t write this post without talking more specifically about my faith.
Sacraments are known in the Church as a means of grace. They provide an action, something physical for us to do in order to understand and receive something, or apprehend something eternal, something unseen. The Lord’s Supper, Baptism, The Sacrament of Marriage, and some others I’ve not mentioned.
I came across this line the other day in a book I was reading: The sacrament of this present moment, and I paused.
I’m not sure why it stopped me because I’ve said something similar. I’ve said it over and over – God blesses the life we have not the one we wish we had, or the one we were supposed to have. It’s easy to get lost in the myriad of regrets or wishes or just plain fantasies of what should be rather than what is. When we get lost in the maze of shoulds, wishes, and could have beens – we lose something right now. We lose the sacrament of the present moment.
The present moment – right now, right here is where God’s grace is available to meet us, to comfort us, to reach out and love us, and reveal His power to us. It’s now. He reveals himself always in the present. He is I AM.
This is where the wise words of James meets us. Don’t say what you’ll do tomorrow or the day after, or how much money you’re going to make in the next three years of your life. Invite God into your life now. Trust Him today.
We also have the words of Jesus … Give us today our daily bread. He teaches Not to worry about tomorrow. For today has enough worries of its own. We are invited to trust God in the here and now.
It’s interesting because I’m someone who has dedicated a significant portion of my life to working with people in which we deal with the past. We spend quite a bit of time inviting the presence of Jesus into the past, for the sole intention of seeing him there and receiving his healing in those difficult places of our lives that overwhelm us. We do this because when we bring our past before God, it is NOW to him. He is outside of linear time. He can heal our past in the present and bring us peace now, because of something that happened then. We invite Jesus into the places in our past that affect our present, that block us from being able to receive his love and goodness now. We do this believing he is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
I’m learning, realizing, discovering the sacred, the sacrament of, and the beauty of this moment. Which, in all honesty, may not always be beautiful. It might be painful and you might feel quite desperate to escape your right now. Which is understandable. The thing is you can’t escape right now or be led out of the horror of your present circumstances if you don’t accept them and ask God to lead you out of them. And as you listen and let him lead you out of your current circumstances – they will become sacred ground.
As always, thank you for reading. I deeply appreciate thoughts, comments, and other voices to share in the journey.
On a side note: How to Thrive Through Rejection, an article I wrote a few weeks ago, is up on my agent’s blog today. Exciting.
Have a great Monday.
Much Love,
Tina
Hi Tina,
After reading your post, wanted to share a song that captures that for me: http://stevencurtischapman.com/music/songs/miracle-moment-386
And so awesome that God can do just that, setting us free in the here and now by healing our past..
Joyce, thank you for sharing this song … I think knowing Steven’s story and how his daughter died, makes this song even more meaningful.
So good to hear from you. I trust all is well with ministry and you’re okay.
Much love,
Tina
Living and learning this right along with you friend. Beautifully said. Since Jerry’s death (can you believe its been 3 1/2 years ago?) I live with a constant sense of the truths you speak of, they bubble up more certain times. But there is a continual, underlying feeling reminding me that there is sacred all around me, holy moments waiting to be names, noticed. So much comes down to “will I choose to see it? to enter in?”. And my yes to those questions comes so much quicker having experience such a glaring and sudden loss those years ago.
K
I’m so grateful for your input and your perspective. The sacred moments of our lives are lived right now. Right here. We have no idea when our lives will end, when we will be called somewhere else, or how long we have … it’s a topic that we don’t touch on often, but one that is ever present in the midst of our mortality. Missing you and your gentle voice.
Tina