What are you doing at the moment?

A dear family friend called one cold, dreary morning this winter. We chatted about our respective families and the conversation quickly worked around to the Lord. It always does with Pat Day, world-renowned thoroughbred jockey and proclaimer of the faith.

My husband, Mike, and Pat became close friends during Mike’s tenure as Chaplain on the backside of Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Over the years they have stayed in touch and continue to lift each other up with encouragement and prayer. However, on this particular day, I answered the phone.

Our discussion keyed on “quiet time” spent alone with the Lord, and Pat shared something he’d heard from a pastor.

“The only time you can be with God is in the immediate moment,” he said. “You can’t be with him five minutes ago, or five minutes from now. Only now, this instant.”

Pat’s comment opened an avenue of thought that led me to God’s timelessness. The Bible tells us Jesus is the same today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow. That’s something to count on. Jesus isn’t going to change his mind or be shifted by a cultural tide.

As occupants of this modern world, we are caught up in time and all its constraints. Though it is an intangible commodity, time drives our labor, priorities, and dreams. We have either too much of it or not enough. We spend it and save it and measure it, but we cannot grasp it.

All of us have heard the witty clichés about past, present, and future, but the scripture says, “Now is the day of salvation.” This moment.

“Only now, this instant.”

So what could be more important than pausing daily to spend some of our time in the presence of the King?

Nothing comes to mind.

What are you doing at the moment?


Scripture taken from 2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV)

Tomorrow: By the time you get there it's today

After driving our pickup home on icy roads with snow blowing sideways and a semi bearing down on me, I had a much deeper appreciation for the phrase “white-knuckling it.” I was just grateful to make it to our driveway without sliding off the highway or adorning the hood of the semi.

My husband calls snow the Great Equalizer. It slows everyone, covers everyone. All of us are the same: travelers struggling to make it safely to our destinations, whether in semis or pickups.

As much as I love the beauty of the falling flakes, I’ll admit I groused about dashing through them from the parking lot to the grocery store that day. “My hair will frizz as soon as it dries,” I whined.

My world is so immediate. I took the pickup that morning without much thought of a snowy day. Didn’t take a muffler. No umbrella. No extra coat in the back seat.

This is Colorado; I knew better.

Remember when your mother said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today”? People credit Thomas Jefferson with those words, but I don’t believe it. It had to be someone from Colorado where the weather can drop 30 degrees in 10 minutes and you can use sun tan oil and snow boots on the same day. It had to be someone like me who put off taking her broken glasses into town on Saturday because she was going on Sunday so she’d do it then and save a trip.

Ha! Not here. Not when a winter blizzard can blow in hours before it’s predicted, clog your driveway with snow and coat the highways in sheet ice.

Guess who spent three days trying to read and work at the computer in a white-out?

Procrastination cost me a lot, but it also gave me something in return: blurred vision and a killer headache.

Some people put off going to the doctor. Others put off saving money, exercising, eating right or talking to God.

Snow isn’t the only equalizer, so it time. We don’t get tomorrow. We think we do, but by the time we get there, it’s today.

Whatever it is you need to do, from saving money to talking to God, do it today. It’s really the only time you have.