I found the still point around which the whole country revolves without knowing it.
~ Thomas Merton (on discovering a beautiful place of worship, called The Abbey of Gethsemeni, near Bardstown, Kentucky)
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ Who is your Life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. … Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is All, and in all. … Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on Love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Colossians 3
Oh beloved, it is true.
Each of us already live there, but our problem is that we don’t know. Or, if we have been made aware, we fear what could happen if we stay. Oh, fear not, this is not so mystical as it sounds.
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
~ Jesus, King of The Universe
We can live with Him as the absolute center of our Lives. And this absolute center is in the singularity of space and time, called “now.” However, there is an extreme oddness to spaces without measure. Size does not matter. Time does not matter. This place is boundless. Now is where we human beings interface with eternity.
And, if we think about it, now is the only place an Infinite G_d would dwell. For, there is no limitation for One Who is measureless. There is no constraint for the Source of Power.
However, He is not constrained to the infinitesimal moment as we know it. This One dwells in a moment that is (if you will forgive the logical fallacy) a much larger eternity. Said more simply, G_d’s ‘now’ is extant across all time and all space. Beyond it, actually, because for Him, eternity itself is a construct which He has made to interface with existence itself. Even more simply: G_d’s now is beyond forever. All time, all space, and all events are quite real. But, they are a tiny subset of His Being-ness.
No wonder we are afraid to go to this space. We are, especially as postmodern (even poststructural) men and women, feel like we have to be straining to remember things in the past, or to be worrying about the future. This feels uncomfortable, but the abysmal quiet of the moment makes us entirely skittish.
Can we see it?
It is hard to see. We have wrapped our true lives in so many onion layers of nearly nothing. Our view into the place where eternity is within is shrouded and clouded.
It was only recently that I saw it. This is about worship. This is about what we deem most important and hold most dear. And, this is what Jesus was talking about when He spoke about us worshipping in Spirit and in Truth. This is what Apostles spoke about when they talked about being ‘in The Spirit,’ or ‘walking in The Spirit.’ This is about when The Triune G_d becomes the very center of our attention – and when we discover this amazing, eternal center in our own lives.
It is, as the Apostle Paul spoke about often, Him in me, and i in Him.
Try this one day (or even tonight). Take a moment to shed your willingness to look at the past and future. Settle into ‘now.’ Then, take that moment to look at the only One Who can enter into that moment fully with you.
Look at Him. Stop beloved. Look.
Oh! Oh! Oh my Lord and my G_d!
And then…. Stay. Now is where He is. Now is where He is our All in all. And, as you begin to dwell in the moment, allow Him to expand the walls with the overpressuring waves of His Glory. Worship and watch as eternity waxes strong over you.
Stay.
God is our true Friend, who always gives us the counsel and comfort we need. Our danger lies in resisting Him; so it is essential that we acquire the habit of hearkening to His voice, or keeping silence within, and listening so as to lose nothing of what He says to us. We know well enough how to keep outward silence, and to hush our spoken words, but we know little of interior silence. It consists in hushing our idle, restless, wandering imagination, in quieting the promptings of our worldly minds, and in suppressing the crowd of unprofitable thoughts which excite and disturb the soul.
~ François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon (1651-1715)
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