How, then, shall we live?

We are in the fifth week of our "Christianity in the 21st Century" class and all I can say is, "Where did the time go?" Seems like every time we get together as a group, we gave just begun. I guess we could even ask that question about our lives in general, couldn't we? As I get older, the days seem to run together. I look around at all the children I have taught who are now adults; I see my children getting older and taller and I wonder, "Where has the time gone?"

Time has been the subject of countless books, magazine articles - there's even one magazine called Time - scientific studies; time touches every part of our lives and we almost seem to have no control over it.

I remember in college reading from a poet, Andrew Marvell. His poem, To a Coy Mistress, has a famous line, "time's winged chariot/always at my back". For Marvell, time has a life of its own, and it's chasing after all of us as quickly as it can. Escape from time's grasp is virtually and really impossible. So, how shall we, then, live if our lives are controlled by time's death grip?

The ancient Ammas and Abbas of the desert, as well as their contemporaries who live as monks and nuns, realized that within the present, the past and future are wrapped up. For mystics and the more spiritually-inclined among us, there is an increasing understanding that time can be dealt with in positive ways. Perhaps the most positive, constructive way of dealing with time means living in the moment without past cares or worry of the future. What would life look like if more people lived for today, cared about what happened right now, and let go of the past or the hope of the future?

Perhaps this is not what Phyllis Tickle means with her question, "How, then, shall we live?" I wonder, however, how this mystical understanding of time could shape the question of how we "emerge" as the Church of the 21st Century. What do you think?

See you Thursday!
Tim