Sometimes I ride the bus to school. It's kind of a hassle to plan around, but it beats finding and paying for a parking space on campus. And, even though it's a hassle, it's sometimes really nice to ride the bus.
When I'm on the bus, I have to actually be surrounded by all the people I'd normally drive right past, too hurried to notice anything about them. I see that some people ride the bus so much that they've gotten to know the bus drivers well, and those people tell the bus drivers about their Christmas breaks and their families. And, when I ride the bus, I get to take a break from concentrating on driving and actually notice what's going on around me.
I get to just be right there, not so worried about how I'm going to get to where I'm going because someone else is taking care of it. It's a moment in which I can focus on the present, rather than on what's up ahead.
Lately, I've been reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. It's a collection of letters from one demon, Screwtape, to another, Wormwood. Screwtape gives instructions on how to steer a Christian away from following his faith. I always think of this book as "that book that people start but never finish because it makes them nervous." I can understand the nervousness, but the book really gives an amazing way of looking at Christianity.
One excerpt that stood out to me was the following. Keep in mind that "the Enemy" Screwtape writes of is God.
"The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present--either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiveing the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure" (75-76).
It makes me wonder about our need to always look so far ahead, to spend time imagining a life which is not yet ours, a future which may never actually happen to us. I think that so many of our anxieties and disappointments are tied to that habit of constantly looking forward to an unpredictable future while forgetting to spend our time appreciating the Present that we are currently living in.
Maybe that's why we're reminded in Matthew 6:34,
"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
I agree that today has enough troubles. But, today also has enough beauty, and it has enough happiness, and it has enough love. Perhaps we will see all of those wonderful things, even amid the trouble, when we take the time to enjoy today without looking forward, with apprenhesion or excitement, to tomorrow.
3 comments:
I haven't finished reading this whole post. I got to this part, "I get to just be right there, not so worried about how I'm going to get to where I'm going because someone else is taking care of it. It's a moment in which I can focus on the present, rather than on what's up ahead." and had to stop and comment:
Isn't that what Jesus was meaning when he said all he did about worry and life in Matthew 6? I mean seriously, we really do NOT have to worry about how we're gonna get wherever or do whatever because someOne else really IS taking care of it. Our job - live in the present. Be there. Don't be off in la la land, and don't be taking over God's job of doing life for you. We are quite free to focus on the present because is already preparing the future for us. Nice, isn't it?
We should all take the bus more often I think. ;P
Ah see - and now I have finished reading the post and here you quote the very passage I mentioned. See - obviously this is God speaking b/c how else could two different people in two different mindsets on two different days come to the same conclusion except by the same spirit that unites them both?
Just a thought...
Seriously, who wouldn't want such a God?
I agree! It's strange to me that for so long I never saw the Bible as the Living Word. It just seemed to be a book like any other book, and I didn't have any interest in reading it. But now when I read it, it's a totally different experience, and I really have begun to see it as alive. :)
Post a Comment