“Hush!” said the other four, for now Aslan had stopped and turned and stood facing them, looking so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad. The boys strode forward: Lucy made way for them: Susan and the Dwarf shrank back…. “Oh, Aslan,” said King Peter, dropping on one knee and raising the Lion’s heavy paw to his face, “I’m so glad. And I’m so sorry. I’ve been leading them wrong ever since we started and especially yesterday morning.”… “My dear son,” said Aslan. Then he turned and welcomed Edmund. “Well done,” were his words. Then, after an awful pause, the deep voice said, “Susan.” Susan made no answer but the others thought she was crying. “You have listened to fears, child,” said Aslan. “Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?”… “A little, Aslan,” said Susan.
~ CS Lewis, from Prince Caspian
When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, and my Best Friend, in John 17
Oh beloved, it is true.
So much of what we hope for is available to us right now. But, the truth is that we miss so much of our lives because we refuse to see the truth.
There is no life outside of the present moment.
Oh no, this fool of a writer is not some sort of Eastern Mystic, who is trying to tell you that the future and the past do not exist. They most surely do. Our past has carried us to now, and now carries us into the future. But, the truth is, is that now is the only place where action and change are possible.
Now, by now i mean something that is something very well known to us. It is the place where our consciousness resides. It is the place where we feel who we are. Now is the place we have always been. And now is what we always try to squirm out of in our fears and anxieties and lusts.
Now is also the only place where we can meet G_d.
Can we see it?
This is the difference between G_d and man. The difference is infinite in scope. For, in the now of G_d, it is time that is small. He is, right now, dwelling across all time and place.
The moment of our births
The first words from our mouths
The first steps
The first love
The first failure
The sunset of our lives
And the moment our death.
He is already there. He Who was, and is, and is to come is untethered to time. Rather time anchors itself and plays out on a rhythm He designed and is implementing until it is done.
And for us, it is time that is big.
So, since there is no way that we can join Him (yet) on the other side of an infinite scale, we have to go small – very small indeed – down into the infinitesimal moment of right now to experience what G_d experiences across all time and space right now.
But, here is the beauty of all of this. Now really is eternal, and the now we are experiencing will continue to grow, as we grow in Him. And, now will break forth into an existence like His when we inhabit the new creation our newly created lives were ever intended to inhabit.
Heaven is just an ever-growing expansion of our present-moment experience of His Goodness and Grace and Love and Strength.
So, are you stressed about things in your past? Are you worried about potential problems in your future? All of that is pretty useless. Actually, it is pretty stupid. Two things give us great hope instead. One, that we can live with Him fully, only in the present moment. And two, that that moment is growing, and will break into eternal song with Him one Day.
Tonight is your night. Time to let go of your fear and anxiety. Time to step out of time altogether.
Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal, for the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it exists forever….
~ Alan Watts
