Living In The Present

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK:
From the book “The Shack” by WM. Paul YoungSetting the

Scene: Mack (main character) has been visited by Jesus at this Shack where one of Mack’s worst nightmares occurred 3 years earlier: (Mack and Jesus are preparing to go to the other side of the Lake that surrounds the shack for a picnic).

Reaching the end of the Dock, Jesus turned to Mack and grinned. “After you,” he said with a mock flourish and bow. “You’re kidding, right?” sputtered Mack. “I thought we were going for a walk, not a swim.”

“We are, I just thought going across the lake would take less time than going around it.” “I’m not that great of a swimmer, and besides, the water looks pretty darn cold,” complained Mack.
“Now,” said Jesus, folding his arms, “we both know that you are a very capable swimmer, once a lifeguard if I remember right. And the water is cold. And it’s deep. But I’m not talking about swimming. I want to walk across with you.”

What Jesus had been suggesting, Mack finally allowed into his consciousness. He was talking about walking on the water. Jesus, anticipating his hesitation asserted, “C’mon, Mack. If Peter can do it…”

Mack laughed, more out of nerves than anything. To be sure, he asked on more time, “You want me to walk on the water to the other side – that is what you are saying right?” “You’re a quick one, Mack. Nobody’s gonna slide anything past you, that’s for sure. C’mon, it’s fun!” He laughed.

Mack walked to the edge of the dock and looked down. The water lapped only about a foot below where he stood, but it might as well have been a hundred feet. The distance looked enormous. To dive in would have been easy, he had done that a thousand times – but how do you step off a dock onto water? Do you jump as if you are landing on concrete, or do you step over the edge as if you are getting out of a boat? He looked back at Jesus, who was still chuckling. “Peter had the same problem: how to get out of the boat. It’s just like stepping off a one-foot stair. Nothing to it.” “Will my feet get wet?” queried Mack. “Of course, water is still wet.”

Again Mack looked down at the water and back at Jesus. “Then why is this so hard for me?” “Tell me what you are afraid of, Mack.” “Well, I am afraid of looking like an idiot. I am afraid that you are making fun of me and that I will sink like a rock. I imagine that –“

“Exactly,” Jesus interrupted. “You imagine, Such a powerful ability, the imagination! The power alone makes you so like us. But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel task master. If I may prove my case, do you think humans were designed to live in the present or the past or the future?”

“Well,” said Mack, hesitating, “I think the most obvious answer is that we were designed to live in the present. It that wrong?” Jesus chuckled. “Relax, Mack. This is not a test, it’s a conversation. You are exactly correct, by the way. But now tell me, where do you spend most of your time in your mind, in your imagination: in the present, in the past, or in the future?”
Mack thought for a moment before answering, “I suppose I would have to say that I spend very little time in the present. I spend a big piece in the past, but most of the rest of the time, I am trying to figure out the future.”

“Not unlike most people. When I dwell with you, I do so in the present – I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay. And for sure, I do not dwell in the future you visualize or imagine. Mack, do you realize that imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you?”

Again Mack stopped and thought. It was true. He spent a lot of time fretting and worrying about the future, and in his imagination it was usually pretty gloomy and depressing, if not outright horrible. And Jesus was also correct in saying that in Mack’s thoughts of the future, God was always absent.

“Why do I do that?” asked Mack. “It is your desperate attempt to get some control over something you can’t. It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn’t even real, nor will it ever be real. You try to play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try to make plans and contingencies to avoid what you fear.”
“So why do I have so much fear in my life?” responded Mack.

“Because you don’t believe. You don’t know that I love you. The person who lives by his fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it, you talk about it, but you don’t know it.

Mack looked down once more at the water and breathed a huge sigh of the soul. “I have so far to go.”