person wearing gold wedding band — Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

A friend told me recently he had two cancer brushes with death. The first one drove him into panic and despair. The second one he handled completely differently.

While processing the dramatic changes he was about to face with a potentially life shortening disease following his first diagnosis, he spoke with an older friend in a support group he belonged to who politely listened to his long list of concerns. What should he do if this or that or the other happens?

His friend, being a blunt old goat finally said, “Well, today you will either die, or you won’t. There’s nothing you can do about that, so why don’t you decide to enjoy today?

How often do we miss the moment because we are somewhere else — either pining over the regrets of the past or in fear of what tomorrow might dump on us?

Did you know that fear lives in the future and guilt in the past?

Sure you can push back and ask why then are you fearful right now? Could it be that you have forgotten fear is a feeling and not a description of your personhood? The same goes for regrets, guilt, and shame. As these apparitions grow in someone’s mind and heart they are pressured to accept the lie that this is just who they are. They will always regret their failures and fear their futures. “That’s just the way we are,” seems the logical conclusion. Let me repeat: This is a lie.

Your fears right now are about what might happen, and this robs you from living right now in this moment.

So, for this moment right now, stop and consider the power within this single moment. Focus. Breath. Think.

In this moment, and this moment only, you can step away from worry.

Right now you can smell fresh air or the subtle scent of a flower or baked bread.

Right where you are you can choose to be grateful for your heart and lungs, your hands and feet, your eyes and ears, and the fact that you are loved and have the ability to love others.

You can list your blessings to include those things and people who get on your nerves but who also improve your ability to love, even when it is a challenging path to take.

In this moment only prayer works. You can’t pray yesterday or tomorrow, only today, right now. This means you can only hear God as you understand him right now.

No guarantees you have a tomorrow on this terrestrial ball, or what it will bring, but if you are living well right now, this can be enough.

God can handle your future. He has taken care of you up to now whether you have realized it or not. It’s what he does because he loves you.

The Still Point is life as it exists apart from the past and the future. It is here and now, in quiet rest, apart from all the demands you believe there are on your life. This moment, today, is where you recover and reclaim your identity as God’s beloved child — and as his child you can now face this day before you.

Now, in his might , power, and blessing, go forth and slay your dragons. Live out from right now who you really are.

Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Psalms 55:22 (ESV)

The Still Point Project

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