About a year ago I was completing an internship at Lutheran Social Services for my pastoral counseling course. My internship involved learning the duties associated with ministering in a nursing and long-term care facility, helping with on-site worship services and visiting residents with various needs and health issues. One of the most challenging aspects of visitation was always keeping to the present.
My mentor carefully chose the residents for me to visit. Some people I had been assigned were quite alert. One lady was quite young and was there to recuperate from a badly broken leg. Several people on my list were recipients of butterfly magnets that were fixed to the metal nameplate on their room doors. The butterfly magnets were given to residents that were in the process of dying. They were presented to the resident in order to give an opportunity for the ministry staff to discuss important spiritual matters concerning rebirth and renewal in heaven.
The butterfly magnets also helped remind those who visited the individuals to be aware that time is precious and limited. The butterfly magnet encouraged the resident, staff and family to cherish the present, to live in the present and to recognize the beauty of what they had – not what they wished they'd accomplished. The butterfly reminds us to cherish not what we wish we had, but what we have right now, in this moment.
One of the most challenging aspects of that internship was to live and help in the moment. To comfort the concern of the individual that was on their heart and mind today, to be aware of the present and not burdened by the past or preoccupied with the "what if's" of the future. This is the goal of ministering to the hearts and minds of people that have not choice other than living in the present moment.
The scripture reading in Matthew speaks to the challenge of living out our lives in the present moment. The church has been looking for the day, the moment that Jesus is going to return. This scripture neither tells us the day or time of his arrival, but it does encourage the church to carry on and be prepared in their present for the promise of Christ's return.
"But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father ….But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Matthew 24:36-44"
Madeline L'Engle is one of my favorite authors for many reasons, but one really important thing about her was her ability to persevere in her writing in the midst of great rejection. Her fiction book, "A wrinkle in time." Written between 1959 and 1960 was "a science fiction novel about a group of children who have to rescue their father from a planet where individuality has been outlawed. The book was rejected by 26 different publishers, who all felt that the book was too difficult for children but too fantastic for adults. But when it came out in 1962, the novel won the Newberry Medal, and it sells about 15,000 copies a year. (The Writer's Almanac @ newsletter@americanpublicmedia.org)".
Madeline could have listened to all twenty-six rejecting publishers and put her typewriter away forever. Madeline could have put her book's manuscript away in the closet and decided to chase after another "what if". Madeline had the ability to dig in her heels, send out manuscript after manuscript and expectantly wait for her book – her present effort – to be published. She had no idea who would approve her book or when it would occur, but she carried out her work faithfully until it happened two years later.
Many times my own mind becomes fixed on what project I want to work on next, and how I can make all my dreams and aspirations come to life. There is nothing wrong with dreaming of possibilities and projects, as long as the dreaming of someday doesn’t keep up us from what work we have to do right now.
Sometimes it is easier for me to express my thoughts in a poem or a song than in any other format. The poem I'm about to share with you is my response to the words… "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."
What if?
Sometimes my mind spends most of the time replaying, creating and taunting with ideas that worry, ideas that cause scurry, ideas that wander and whine.
Instead of thinking on what isn't sinking.
Instead of pondering what is fine.
Instead of focusing on what is present,
what is pleasant and what is kind.
Sometimes my mind likes to wander to places that are dark and cold.
Taking me to places with unfriendly faces.
The places where defense is gold.
Instead of thinking on what is today.
Instead of cherishing what I hold.
Instead of drawing attention to beauty,
to what is sweet and bold.
Sometimes I think I need to stop and think of things that matter, that last beyond the temporal soil.
Sometimes I know I need to want what I have,
Not what I think should be my goal.
Instead of focusing on wants and what ifs.
Instead of reaching to remotes.
What if I looked at what I have,
what I possess, and present
a treasure to untold?
Copyright T.L. Eastman 2007
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Madeline L'Engle passed away on September 6th of 2007 and had sixty -two books published in her life of eighty-eight years. Due to her determination and persistence she was able to share her treasure with many readers.
Sometimes we miss the treasure that our lives hold because we're chasing after a something, a someday, a somewhere. What if today you could look into your life and see something precious and wonderful, some treasure that you could share with the world.
We must live life expectantly, persistently, happily and in the moment knowing that we all have butterflies on our doorway. You never know when it will be your time to fly.
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