I am really convinced that most of the
worry, angst and unhappiness of our lives comes from our not living
in the present and our natural inclination to control things.
Imagine if God granted you the gift, if only for a day, to only be
able to live in the present. By noon, without great strain you
already could not remember what you had for breakfast, that you were
almost late for work and that your kids were screaming for WAY too
long. You also couldn't remember exactly what it was you were
supposed to do this evening, let alone later this week. How would
that change your perspective? You would literally be forced to just
focus on the present moment. And if you can't remember... once you
accept that you can't remember (we'll move onto that control thing in
a minute) then, really the only thing TO do is be fully present, in
the present. The things you have to do cannot cause you stress
because they are not a part of your NOW, the things that happened
this morning cannot weigh on you, because they are not a part of your
NOW.... and NOW, all by itself, without all of that other stuff
mountained on top of it... really is something you CAN do. But in
living in the present, there is a certain amount of control that we
lose... and that can be maddening for some of us. There is a sense
of false security in thinking that we can actually control a lot in
our life... when really we are just seeking knowledge, which doesn't
change the inevitable end at all. I imagine, in my “live in the
present” day, that pretty quickly I would realize that since I
could only live in the moment, if there was something that truly was
within my scope of “control” that I should be responsible for, I
would write it down when I thought about it in the present so that I
could do that thing later... for example, “Take Melanie to the
doctor at 5pm”. However, what I probably would NOT do is waste my
time writing down things like “Call the agency and see if anything
new has happened.” …. Its important to notice where our focus is.
At the moment I might be tempted to call our agency, as waiting is
no fun, and try to glean some sort of early information (they already
do update us every month!) as to where we are on the waiting list.
But in reality, all this sort of thinking does, is rob our joy of the
present, worrying about something we have no control over. Any
information I glean from that conversation will not change anything
about our timeline, or the update we will receive in a couple weeks.
All it will do is give me more information, of which I really cannot
do much with... except feel informed LOL And its so easy to feel
like we have some sort of control when we have information. And not
to say, there are not many important things to learn. Absolutely! I
rarely have my nose out of a book.. Just reflecting today, that in
every situation... in the present moment, I have found that normally
it is pretty easy to discern if there is anything that you can do
about the situation, or if it should be placed in God's hands to
handle, because there really isn't anything you can do. I think a
lot more of the things in our life fit into the second category. I
do believe, for the things that we discern there are things we CAN
do, it would be negligent of ourselves to not do them... but for the
things that we discern there is nothing we can do (and as I said,
I've found its usually clear pretty fast when this is the case).. we
need to let go and let God :) He asks us to Trust Him over and
over... and its so easy for us to instead, trust ourselves when we
goof stuff up all the time.
Not sure if I should reread this... it
might be complete confusion as I kinda just tossed all the mess of my
mind down LOL But if there is anything that makes sense.. YAY Happy
FRIDAY
