Day 45: Be Present (for the Joy & for the Pain)
/Have you ever had a hard time just staying exactly where you are?
The last time I remember this happening to me was … in the last 24 hours. My daughter asked us to sit next to her while she put little plastic beads on a large plastic board in the shape of a shooting star. You know those melty beads? When I was growing up we got the generic circles, squares, pentagons, and hexagons. Now there’s every shape and design under the sun. And we sit next to her, she is painstakingly putting one little bead on at a time until that star was complete, counting every line making sure the numbers are correct, etc. It is adorable and endearing.
I quite enjoy watching her work, actually. It is a blast watching her brain grow, watching her strategize, watching her really care about something from start to finish.
Still, in those moments that I so enjoy, I find my mind wandering to everywhere else. What we’re going to have for dinner, what I need to set out for school the next day, what I need to write in my planner for the next day, what my grandma might be doing, if there’s a new episode of Spring Baking Championship this week, if the dog needs food, if I have any cookie dough left in the fridge, what we’re going to have for dinner… the list goes on.
There are so many reasons for the constant distraction and we could write a thesis on every one of those reasons. But the real-real is this: it is difficult for humans to stay in one place - mind, body, spirit - and be all the way present. If remaining were easy, there wouldn’t be a myriad of practices to help us stay present (meditation in its many forms; yoga; mindfulness; therapy; scripture memorization; etc.).
Scripture is clear, though: be here now. Stay in today. Don’t look back (Isaiah 43:18-19), don’t worry about the future (Matthew 6:34). Learn from the past (Romans 15:4) and plan for the future (Proverbs 16:1-3), but don’t ruminate on either one.
Today is Good Friday. This weekend we prepare our hearts for Easter. We consider that Jesus was crucified for our sins and as imagine what it might have been like for those who loved him back then, the ones who were in the crowd watching him perish.
Without all of the distractions that we have today, was it easier for his followers back then to remain present? I’m not sure that it was. Scripture was written for us, sure, but it was first spoken to them, Jesus’ followers who were alive at that time. Each and every time Jesus taught something, he was teaching to an active situation. So since be present was written in more than one form, we have to assume remaining present was difficult even back then - even without the phones, Netflix, email, and yard work.
To remain present in one’s faith is a difficult thing. It means accepting the moments of pleasure and pain as part of God’s whole story for you. It means believing God is good in the hard moments and in the easy ones - not in a placating way, but in a deep-well, down to your soul kind of way. It means remaining in conversation with Him on a daily basis; it means looking for answers in scripture; it means accepting pruning and celebrating that God loves you just as you are.
To remain present in one’s faith is something that Jesus did all the way through the crucifixion experience. His last breath was crying out to God. His prayers on the cross were to his father, the creator of the universe. He remained in the present. He stayed exactly where he was; in body he was forced to, but in mind and body he had a choice. In mind and spirit Jesus could have easily escaped; he could have thought about his times as a young boy or he could have dreamed about what might be next. Instead, he stayed there - in the pain, in the sacrifice, in the service - through the entire experience. And because of that full presence, we have eternal life.
May you remain fully present in your faith today.
May your spirit feel renewed as you let the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
walk with you in your pleasure and in your pain.
May your heart feel fully present in the assurance of what you hope for.
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Tell me about you: how easy or difficult is it for you to remain present in your faith? What might that look like for you today?
