The greatest failure of a person may well be to miss out on “the moment”.

What moment? Well, maybe any moment. Just because it is not fun does not mean it does not have value. I understand that sickness and death are not fun. But, in the midst of those I learned compassion. To exercise grace. (As a believer I do not think either of those “moments” are necessary!) The normal routine is to wriggle out of pain or discomfort. But where are you wriggling to? Sometimes we must incur “pain” to arrive at gain.

A NOW God is present in the now. So much of what people (Including the church!)have practiced is escapism as if we are to be spiritual Houdini’s. “Nope. That’s ‘bad’, we got to do something else.” I am not saying I like “bad” but my ability to be alive, to overcome is not a “next” thing but a NOW thing.

In the church we have placed value on destiny and vision. I get that. But so many are missing the today stuff that their future and destiny suffer. One of my great encouragements to parents is “enjoy your kids”. Why? Because one day they will be off doing their thing. And you might have pictures someone else took but will you have memories? (It is one of the greatest ministries given to man!)

We so badly want to hurry things it seems that we miss the time we “hurried” to in the first place!

Life is to be lived.

I get how hard parenting can be. (Five kids and seven grandchildren.) One of the greatest disservices I think we do with children is to “bail” them out so they can avoid uncomfortable or difficult times. I see parents always trying to “distract” children. (And then they want to treat them for ADD or ADHD because they are distracted! What is that all about?) Let them “suffer” a bit. (I am not talking about housing, illness, food, clothing or endangerment issues.) If little Susie “doesn’t have any friends” give them a cookie and sit down and begin to have that conversation. If little Johnny can’t figure something out, don’t say “well here is a TV program”. Let them “get” that moment of despair. Be there to help them work through it. Not avoid it. Help them grow. Not escape.

Even some of the church’s theology is based on escape rather than “being” here. I get not everything is comfortable, but maybe a lot of it is profitable.

We often use the example of Edison’s of success and failure with regard to his tenacity. “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” We are like,  “see”. In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says it takes roughly 10,000 hours for someone to excel or declare mastery of something. Do we instill that in people?

10,000 misses or 10,000 hours is a lot of moments that do not seem productive.

Here is my question. Are you avoiding life? Allowing distractions? Or are you embracing the moment, sitting “across” the table from a very present God and allowing His grace to be sufficient?