EMBRACE THE MOMENT

January 2016

The moment in which we live is far greater than the eons of time that stretch out before us. For only in the moment, only in this moment can we experience our self. This sounds good but do we really believe this? How many tasks can we perform at a single time and how quickly can we complete them? Surely if we are quick, and we know ways to help us to more efficiently use our time, we can increase the amount of things we do in a day. In every facet of our life we may find we have placed quantity over quality. Is it any wonder when we gaze out through the window before us in to eternity the present moment seems quite insignificant?

Only a devotion to excellence will enable us to live entirely in the moment and to turn aside from our passion for more. If our present is lacking in love, joy, peace, goodness, persistence, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control what then are we seeking to increase?  Until we can fill our daily life with these attributes more of anything else will make life increasingly more difficult.

If we take a single task and break it up by steps, completing only one at a time, looking never to the next step, we will have an example of the focus necessary to devote our self to excellence. Here our joy comes from meeting the task before us and not the ones that lay ahead. For only when living in the moment can we shut out those distractions that will rob us of our focus. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could lose our self in the task before us and not be concerned for its completion? If we plan well we will have set out the steps before us to go where we wish to go, and if we have faith in our plan we will not rush toward its conclusion.  We will devote our heart and our mind to experiencing each step with an eye toward excellence.

We often think that our goal is vital and how we arrive at it as secondary, when in fact it is the process that is of greatest importance and arriving at our goal is secondary. This is not to depreciate aspirations and goal setting but the goal is simply the final step in the process and not the only one. If we surrender the grandness and glory of a step taken with a devotion to excellence what then will we have achieved in its stead?

We have the capacity to grow toward perfection. Our Lord has promised us the future. He will not withhold it from us so where are we rushing. We will get there but if we meet him with soiled robes what does it say of our faith? If our life is stained with fear and anguish, with a lack of devotion and only a faint promise of excellence what is the whole purpose of our journey?  

Let us use the season well and start the new- year with a new set of priorities. The present is overflowing with promise that we may live in the moment and devote each step along our way to excellence.