“When we bear into the future the full knowledge of our past, we walk with hearts unfolded. We see that nothing is preserved, and no child or grandchild is saved, without brash acts of love and wild visions of continuance.” from “All That She Carried,” Tiya Miles
In “Being and Time”, Martin Heidegger asks: Why does time only run forward? Why can’t it go backward? Heidegger’s answer, “because all our hopes and desires lie in the future. Everything we want in life lies ahead of us. It would be meaningless for us to go back.” Mark’s Gospel opens with this announcement by Jesus: “The time is at hand.”
Why do these words resonate with me now: continuance, the future, time? I believe it’s about spending time reflecting on the arc of my life. Which, surprisingly, continues into my ninetieth decade, with a loving family extending into great-grand-children. I’m at a time where my mode of life is waiting, with patience, for that which my faith tells me is surely to come. I wonder, am I over-burdened with a yearning for that future, for what is inevitable, and beyond my control? Am I left without recourse, looking only at the horizon, neglecting the present?
When I pay attention to the now, The Spirit instructs and comes upon me. It is the reality of a blessed mystery of Grace allowing me to continue to grow in knowledge and faith. As I reflect on my life, The Spirit leads me to the Book of Job. I can relate to Job who is so agonizingly a suffering human.
“What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end that I should be patient?” Job 5:25-25,6:11
My recourse is God, faithful, merciful and loving. “As for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.”
God tells Job his future in what could well be a foretelling of my future.
“You shall know that your descendants will be many and your offspring like the grass of the earth. You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.”
As I reflect back on my own life, all the turnings and dead ends, if this or that happened or not, I would be in a very different place. I realize learning to be grateful for the doors that weren’t for me. My life would be very different when the Army sent me to Germany instead of Korea in 1955. In Korea I might have been a combat casualty or KIA! I am eternally grateful for my loves and my life.
Think about the freedom of knowing we are powerless to know the future. In the beginning, God creates an interchange of light and darkness. It is as true for the sky as it is for the soul. Paul in Ephesians tells us the eyes of our heart will be enlightened with as much light as we can bear. Waiting invites patience for that which will come in the fullness of time.
“I waited patiently upon the LORD; he stooped to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and clay; he set my feet upon a high cliff and made my footing sure.” Psalm 40:1-2
In “Being and Time”, Martin Heidegger asks: Why does time only run forward? Why can’t it go backward? Heidegger’s answer, “because all our hopes and desires lie in the future. Everything we want in life lies ahead of us. It would be meaningless for us to go back.” Mark’s Gospel opens with this announcement by Jesus: “The time is at hand.”
Why do these words resonate with me now: continuance, the future, time? I believe it’s about spending time reflecting on the arc of my life. Which, surprisingly, continues into my ninetieth decade, with a loving family extending into great-grand-children. I’m at a time where my mode of life is waiting, with patience, for that which my faith tells me is surely to come. I wonder, am I over-burdened with a yearning for that future, for what is inevitable, and beyond my control? Am I left without recourse, looking only at the horizon, neglecting the present?
When I pay attention to the now, The Spirit instructs and comes upon me. It is the reality of a blessed mystery of Grace allowing me to continue to grow in knowledge and faith. As I reflect on my life, The Spirit leads me to the Book of Job. I can relate to Job who is so agonizingly a suffering human.
“What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end that I should be patient?” Job 5:25-25,6:11
My recourse is God, faithful, merciful and loving. “As for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.”
God tells Job his future in what could well be a foretelling of my future.
“You shall know that your descendants will be many and your offspring like the grass of the earth. You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.”
As I reflect back on my own life, all the turnings and dead ends, if this or that happened or not, I would be in a very different place. I realize learning to be grateful for the doors that weren’t for me. My life would be very different when the Army sent me to Germany instead of Korea in 1955. In Korea I might have been a combat casualty or KIA! I am eternally grateful for my loves and my life.
Think about the freedom of knowing we are powerless to know the future. In the beginning, God creates an interchange of light and darkness. It is as true for the sky as it is for the soul. Paul in Ephesians tells us the eyes of our heart will be enlightened with as much light as we can bear. Waiting invites patience for that which will come in the fullness of time.
“I waited patiently upon the LORD; he stooped to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and clay; he set my feet upon a high cliff and made my footing sure.” Psalm 40:1-2
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