Struggles

"Where are you?" once asked Tae Sung as we walked into class.  Everyone pulled out sheets of paper and began to write where they were.  I doubt anyone wrote that they were in a class with 30 other students - at least not honestly.  Minds come and go to different places all the time, but rarely stay where they are.  Annie Dillard writes a good chapter on being present, I recommend you read it.  People reminisce or become nostalgic.  People even look ahead and wearingly worry about what will happen.  Pointless. Utterly pointless.  I remember weeks when I had so much homework that I couldn't do a single assignment, because all I could think about was the other assignments I had due.  I wonder why it is so hard to be present.  Maybe it is a result of the fall, I'm not sure.  Kids seem to be better at this.  They run around and notice everything around them, because when they get here they are here, as oppose to everywhere else.  They go everywhere with empty cups ready for them to be filled.  "Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall," says Annie Dillard.  To be present you must go with an empty cup and let it be filled naturally, not forcefully.  Don't worry the cup will be filled.  Try it sometime.  Try paying attention to what is going on around you.  Try watching the tottering trees in a weighty wind.  Try watching leaves twirl their way down to the earth.  Try watching the waves as they carelessly toss everything in their path.  Try intently listening to someone as they talk their heart out to you.  Try being present, because the present is here, not over there.  The present is now and, frankly, that is all you are going to get.  God is in the present.  Strange, huh?  A transcendent God contains and confines himself into time to be present here and now to us.  Yet, we prefer to get lost in our minds or get lost as our minds "relax" in front of a T.V.  To be present is to be with God and I can't imagine anything better than that.  Let us not avoid the present for fear of what it brings.  Let us embrace the present as God embraces it.  In turn, let us embrace God as He embraces us.

So.  Let me ask you.  Where are you?