Several months ago, I was driving to meet a leader who had initiated lunch with me. And, while I was on my way, I started thinking about the possibilities that might come from our getting together.

I thought there might be some mutual benefit to a potential partnership and I started rehearsing in my mind a few things I might need to say or demonstrate for that to happen.

Then I woke up. I realized I had left the activity of actually driving my car and had slipped into a momentary “trance” that was heading toward self-serving.

How many times have you left the house to drive to the mall and 20 minutes later you arrive but don’t remember how you got there?  You disappeared for awhile.  Disappeared into your mind.

Fortunately, before I reached the restaurant, I woke up and said to myself:  “You just need to bring your best self to this meeting —find the best way of connecting with this guy and see how you might serve him.  If anything comes from it, that’s beneficial to you, great. If not, you really don’t NEED anything more to happen. You don’t require anything else for this lunch to be a success.”

We USE because we think we NEED.

We often use this present moment to try to get a better one. 

We often use a person in a conversation or meeting for the purpose of getting something else.  Sometimes, we even call this “networking.”

We can be aware of the goodness of what is happening- Here and Now- then switch to thinking about something not happening at the moment, but it’s something that wants to break in, a situation our mind wants to convince us is more important than right now.

Another example could be how we use one work moment, to make more money for another moment in time, instead of simply enjoying what we’re able to contribute and we get to do in the present work moment.

When we truly live in the awareness of the gift

that’s being given in the present moment or in the presence of another person,

we find we really don’t need anything more.

But, when we live in un-awareness of that present moment gift we find that there is never enough. We feel needy.

Learning to be in touch with the richness of The Source of our True Identity we discover everything we’re actually looking for, we already fully possess in this moment… in this day.

What confuses us is when our conditioned, compulsive mind tells us we are missing something.  That’s what initially got Adam and Eve into trouble.

When we learn to absorb the treasures hidden in each encounter, each opportunity, we can say without any cliché …this is totally the day the Lord has made, so let’s rejoice in it.  ( Psalm 118)

We won’t need to use others for our own self serving purposes. We won’t make our time with them a means to an end. We’ll stop using up the present moment in order to get a better one.

The most needful, important thing possible is happening right now.

Whenever an action is not self -serving, you know your action came from your True Identity.

Whenever an action is self serving, you know that your action came from your conditioned, compulsive false identity.  

What are you aware of right now, at this moment?

• Can you be aware of the love in and around you?
• Can you be grateful for the resources in and around you?
• Are you awake to all the opportunities for the purposes of your life to operate in and around you?

Multiple times Jesus talks to us about being aware… being awake… being alert. In Mark 13:33-37 he tells a parable to his disciples and at the beginning and end of the parable he says: “Be awake.  Be alert… What I say to you, I say to ALL: stay awake.”  

 He actually was talking much less about an event in the future, as much as he was talking about living present.

Jesus was saying:  stay alert to NOW.   Mark 1:14   “The Kingdom of God has come now.”

God is always Now.

And we are often someplace else.

No wonder we feel so empty. No wonder we can’t seem to find God.

This must be why Jesus tells us to stay awake. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus implored his disciples to stay awake and pray with him. He’s still asking his disciples to stay present today.

It’s the key to all true spirituality.

WHY DO WE STRUGGLE TO STAY PRESENT?

Notice the words: “now” and “here” spell “nowhere.”  Sometimes, when we are now here, it feels like we are nowhere and it’s that an uncomfortable feeling that causes us to rush to the next moment or the next person.

We are so unfamiliar with present tense living it freaks us out to stay in it for more than a few seconds.

A Few Presence Practices: 

• See how long can you gaze into the eyes of the one you love without turning away.

• Take a few deep breaths and stay aware of the air coming and going from your body.

• The next time someone hugs you, don’t be the first to pull away. Don’t rushing off in your mind to your next thing. Experience the connection in that love, kindness, friendship for a few extra seconds.

• Really taste the food at your next meal. Think about where it came from. Feel grateful for the growers or animal that offered up that meal. Chew slowly.

• The birds are flying south right now. Stop for a few seconds, look up and experience the wildness and wonder of pure poetry in motion.

A part of the invitation of the Kingdom of God is to: “taste and see that the Lord is good.”  Learn to taste and see the goodness of each moment… of each relational encounter.  Learn to actually experience your experiences.

And when we live in the full and present awareness of God’s goodness. We’ll discover there more than enough.

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