Presence In The Present Moment

Presence In The Present Moment

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Matthew 6:27

So many people had come to say good-bye to Paul that they spilled out of his room and into the hallway. When I stopped by, there were family, friends, and neighbors leaning against the wall and standing around his bed. They obviously cared for him deeply. But their faces were lined with worry.

Paul had fought a long and very hard battle with cancer. He’d lived well beyond any medical professional’s expectations. And he had been in a lot of pain. Those in the room knew their prayers for healing wouldn’t be answered until Paul was on the other side of heaven’s veil, and they wanted to be with him on his final journey home.

I watched as his wife held his hand and tearfully prayed for God to intervene. She asked for God’s will to be done, and I sensed that she may have added an unspoken request that God’s will would be done quickly so that Paul wouldn’t continue to suffer.

I took a seat next to Paul’s bed and felt the holy presence of God even more than usual. I knew Paul’s time would come soon. Each breath was harder for him to take, and his pulse was declining.

“How much longer does he have to struggle?” one of Paul’s daughters asked insistently.

“I feel the presence of the Holy One in the room right now, and it won’t be long,” I reassured her. “But only the Lord knows exactly when that will be.”

The worry lines I’d seen earlier softened as the family began to understand that we were on holy ground. A sense of peace that surpasses understanding seemed to fill everyone in the room.

Just as today’s verse above says that worry can’t add a single moment to our lives, neither can it take a moment away. The transition times of life on earth—our birth and our death—are sacred moments when we can feel God’s comfort and presence. At those moments, more than any other, we want to be filled with God’s presence, not with our own worry. But sometimes in the midst of our tears and exhaustion, we need fresh eyes to help us see that God is there.

TODAY’S RX

Try not to worry today. Our present and future days are always in God’s hands.

Lord, be with those suffering today, and give them your peace. Show them they are not alone but are enveloped in your love. Help them through their journey until they are home with you.