Learning to attend to the present is one of the most critical -- and most rewarding -- disciplines we can cultivate. Our thoughts often stray in two directions. Both of them can sabotage any real hope of living in the present. One direction leads to the past, the unchangeable past. The past is filled with the words we should have spoken. The kindnesses we ought to have done. The dreams that went sour. You will know that you are living in the past tense when your thoughts and your words are filled with too many "if onlys" and you feel stung by regret.
The future, of course, is the other direction that pulls us away from the present. "What if" is the language of the future. Sometimes the specter of the future is full of dark images painted in fearful tones. What might happen, what could happen, what must not happen reaches out and grabs us by the throat. We can be paralyzed by fears that will never materialize. And we can be overwhelmed by challenges we may have to face, but not today.
Living in the moment, then, is the discipline that gets challenged from either end… Living in the present is so important because it is the place we meet God.
-- Paula Rinehart in an article titled "Living in the Present Tense", Discipleship Journal, Jan/Feb 1999
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