I recently read a quote from a book by C.S. Lewis called "The Screwtape Letters" that spoke to this idea. If you're not familiar with this book, it is written from a demon's point of view - read this quote from the book, by Screwtape:
If you're like me, you constantly feel overwhelmed by a gazillion different tasks on a daily basis. Most of us are like this - we are busy, fast-paced people who live in a fast-paced culture. We are overly consumed with things being fast, and happening fast. The internet needs to be fast, or else we'll pay more money to get it to work faster. We pay extra money for our phones to work faster and download data faster. We want our cars to go faster, time at work to go by faster, and before we know it our lives have passed us by. We aren't often taught the benefits of slowing down, or how to manage it. Instead, we are told that success comes by how many different jobs you can juggle at one time. You only went to work, picked up your kids and cooked dinner today? Did you at least read a novel on your lunch break or knit a sweater on your commute home? How in the world do you enjoy the present moment when so much is going on?
The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present—either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.
Did you catch that point? "The present is the point at which time touches eternity." He says it is only when we are in the present time that we experience a time similar to that of being with the Lord. The demon knows that the Lord desires us to be in the present time, receiving the present grace, and giving thanks for the present pleasures. If we spend too much time in the past, we are oblivious to the Lord's blessings in the present, much like we are if we concern ourselves too much about the future.
I find myself struggling with this because of my elevated expectations of myself. I expect myself to be able to evenly juggle working full-time, raising a child, learning a second language, managing a blog, starting a hobby, keeping the house clean, managing dinner and whatever other miscellaneous other things I want to throw in there. When do I have time for myself? When do I have time for my husband? Friends? It becomes a mess. I am challenging myself, and you others, to stop overcrowding the present time. Enjoy it while it's here. The present moment is fleeting, and you will never get it back. Make it count! Appreciate the blessings and pleasures around you. Prioritize, and if you need help doing that accurately, ask someone who cares about you to lend a hand. My prayer for all of us is that we don't take the present time for granted. There are so many people who, after losing so much time, would give anything to be in our shoes, and in our present troubles.
Something to consider. xoxo
I find myself struggling with this because of my elevated expectations of myself. I expect myself to be able to evenly juggle working full-time, raising a child, learning a second language, managing a blog, starting a hobby, keeping the house clean, managing dinner and whatever other miscellaneous other things I want to throw in there. When do I have time for myself? When do I have time for my husband? Friends? It becomes a mess. I am challenging myself, and you others, to stop overcrowding the present time. Enjoy it while it's here. The present moment is fleeting, and you will never get it back. Make it count! Appreciate the blessings and pleasures around you. Prioritize, and if you need help doing that accurately, ask someone who cares about you to lend a hand. My prayer for all of us is that we don't take the present time for granted. There are so many people who, after losing so much time, would give anything to be in our shoes, and in our present troubles.
Something to consider. xoxo