by Annette Bridges. ©2006. All rights reserved.
Sometimes I think about how much time I’ve wasted worrying about not having enough time. It’s a vicious circle. I get nothing done because I’m too busy fretting about not having enough time to accomplish what I want to do.
So I stress over impossible deadlines on a project I’m working on. I worry that a remodeling project won’t get completed before Christmas. I feel overwhelmed with so many responsibilities that I don’t go visit my mom or my brother or call a friend. And the list could go on.
Recently I got some new insights into how to win the battle with time—or lack of it—from “Now and Then,” an article written by Mary Baker Eddy that was published in 1903 (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 12-14).
Here are a few ideas that inspired me:
“We own no past, no future, we possess only now.”
“If the reliable now is carelessly lost in speaking or in acting, it comes not back again.”
“Faith in divine Love supplies the ever-present help and now, and gives the power to ‘act in the living present.’”
“Now is the accepted time.”
The Apostle Paul also spoke of “now” in regard to time. He said, “Behold, now is the accepted time….” One definition for “accepted” is “preferred.” So now, not later, is the preferred time.
I think focusing on now, from a spiritual standpoint of our relation to God, can show me how to win the time-crunch war.
My step dad, who introduced me and my mom to Christian Science, began every day thinking about these words by Mary Baker Eddy: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.” Those words were part of his morning prayer, which he often shared aloud as he drove me to school.
The solution to enjoying blessings in the now surely is found in God, the sustaining infinite. Divine Love, or God, is here with us right now to help us with our every need. Love helps us shape our right desires into present actions.
We don’t need more time—just right now.
When we let Love lead the way, we find that we don’t actually need more time. We just need right now. Now is the only place that moments can be lived. In another article, “Improve Your Time,” Mrs. Eddy wrote, “All successful individuals have become such by hard work; by improving moments before they pass into hours …” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, p. 230).
What’s most important is how we act, speak, what we do right now. If our moments are God-directed, we can’t go wrong. By trusting God’s guidance, we’ll always have present possibilities for memorable moments—no matter where we are.