Accepting the present

A man of understanding sets his face before wisdom,
but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
Proverbs 17:24

Looking ahead towards the Cumbrian Mountains

 

Often when I am working on the computer, I find myself remembering past seasons of my life. These feelings of nostalgia were especially strong during lockdown (as I wrote in a previous blog post). Perhaps since we weren't allowed to leave our homes, my mind became even more itchy for retreating into the past.

My father-in-law says the same thing happens to him when he is working long hours in the garden: memories resurface, seemingly from nowhere and for no apparent reason.

I am sure, to a degree, there is good reason for this. Metropolitan Anthony Bloom has written of elderly people that the past often haunts them, teaching them of some unresolved conflict they must make peace with: someone they wronged years ago, perhaps, or someone they need to forgive. 

But there is harm in dwelling too much on the past. I have sometimes caught myself living in the past -- on an ongoing basis, believing that a part of me still lives in a chapter of life that has already ended, preventing me from being fully present in the season I am living in now.

Differing greatly in degree, the strongest biblical example I can think of is when Israel is held captive in Babylonian exile. They long to return to their home, but the prophet Jeremiah tells them they must build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children (in other words, settle down) and seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Only after seventy years of living in exile will God return them to their home. Thus, they have to fully accept their present circumstances and make the best of their life in a foreign land; this, surprisingly, is what God intends for them.

Living in the past -- or anywhere other than our current setting -- can prevent us from living the life God has given us now. The Gospel of Luke tells us about a certain person who has the opportunity to follow Jesus, but then the person says, 'first let me go back and say good-by to my family'. 

Jesus replies, 'No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God' (Luke 9:61-62).

How often do my nostalgia or even dreams for the future distract me from the work God has for me here and now?

I think about the coronavirus pandemic, and how people say we have to 'adjust to a new normal' -- except this new normal remains unstable and uncertain, making it difficult to adjust to anything! Like the Israelites in Babylon, I long to return to the relative stability of the past, but there is no guarantee of that happening soon, if ever. 

But it is in these very circumstances that God is still at work, calling us to participate with him. I am not suggesting that God caused COVID-19; whether he did or didn't is beyond my understanding. I am also not saying we should surrender to our challenges. What I am saying is that God's kingdom is coming into the world even in the midst of our current crises, and perhaps we need to first accept our new situation before we can recognise God's activity in our midst and then participate with it.  

As essential as remembering the past is, and as important as planning for the future is, we can only receive the life Jesus gives us here, in the present, and it is only now -- every new day he gifts us with -- that we have the opportunity to again turn and follow Jesus, 'for the kingdom of heaven is at hand': even here, even today.