For most of our lives, we live in an illusory world. We live in imagined scenes of the past and the future, which can never adequately capture reality as it is. In fact, our ability to do so is part of the reason why we are so successful as a species. Because we have the amazing ability to imagine the future and reconstruct the past, we can build ever more perfect models of the physical world around us. This allows us to learn effectively from the past, and plan our path into the future. It allows the manipulation of the world, understand just how responsive reality is to our actions, and hypothesize ways to make our lives more comfortable and pleasurable.
This is, of course, all well and good.
Yet it is a function of a species in a threatening world. Our struggle for emergence and survival over the millennia has sharply honed this ability, which we have now employed so successfully to create the modern world, where comfort abounds for those lucky enough to receive its blessings. Paradoxically, however, many of those who live in this technological paradise (compared to all previous generations) are tormented within it. Anxiety, sadness, depression, regret, anger, jealousy, division, and ills abound, despite the material comfort that is enjoyed.
It is a survival mechanism with the tendency to go haywire.
For it is our ability to project our lives into the future which is at the root of anxiety and worry (the non-clinical kind, mind you), and it is our ability to re-present the past to our mind that can be the cause of many regrets, embarrassment and sadness.
At this point, we must consider this ability in light of the teachings of Christ. Consider the following passages from Matthew chapter 6:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
It appears here that Jesus is telling us to do away with this obsession with the future. In fact, Jesus seems to be advocating a radical disregard for the things we believe we need for our survival. At the very least, he says we should think about them without fear or worry. This isn’t just a concern about luxuries - here we could more easily understand Jesus’ admonition, for we don’t really need such things. But Jesus is talking about life’s necessities - food and clothing!
What is going on?
Research has shown that most of our thoughts are negative and repetitive. Occasionally that can come in handy when we need to act to ensure the well-being of ourselves or others. But let’s face it, most thoughts and worries are just mental exhaust that do nothing for our lives. In fact, they take up energy and make us more stressed, unhappy and lost.
There is a tendency to overemphasise the power of our conscious thought-life; we tend to think constant ruminating is required in order to plan and organise our lives effectively.
But when this belief is dropped and we just try to live from the moment, it turns out that life runs very smoothly. Our minds and capacity for action lie much deeper than the conscious thoughts that bubble to the surface. This is not to say that conscious thinking isn’t important - of course it is, but it does not need to constantly ruminate about the future and the past.
Hence Jesus’ advice that we don’t need to constantly worry about the future. It does us no good for starters; by worrying we can’t add any days to our life. In fact, we can reduce the number of days of our life due to stress. But secondly, Christians are called to a life of faith, of trust in the Father, and, if we live this way, our energies are freed up and life becomes lighter and more joyful.
There is another aspect that is important to consider. We are not just physical creatures, and the Christian has deeper resources than we can possibly imagine. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who will guide us in all things if we have faith. But faith means letting go of our overblown concern for survival - Christ has defeated death and the grave no longer holds any fear.
That means that we can clear our overactive minds, or at least cease attaching to destructive thought-forms, and rest in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will guide us only if we hand over the reins (our planning about the future) to Him. It has always struck me that God is exceedingly careful not to interfere with our will, and if we are constantly planning and being anxious about the future, God will not trespass on our intentions. There is also the problem that when we think we are in control of our lives, with every step mapped out into the future, we will never hear the promptings of God.
So in order to be effectively led by the Spirit, we have to let go of our plans and let him lead us from moment to moment. The following passage from Matthew comes to mind:
But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Matthew 10:19-20
It seems to me this docility to the Spirit is not limited just to extreme cases, such as being arrested, but is something that can be embraced and enjoyed in all circumstances.
This finally brings me to something I heard in a YouTube video the other day. The presenter said, quite rightly, that God only needs the next 10 seconds of our life to act in us for the good of the world…and the next 10 seconds, and the next 10 seconds. This is the real world, the world of the moment, not the fantasy which we concoct in our minds driven by a fallen survival mechanism.
All our actions occur right now, this is where our life really is. If we need to plan for the future, plan in the present moment, then let it go. Our life for God and for others only ever unfolds from moment to moment.
There is freedom, joy, energy and lightness of spirit in this realisation.
So let’s just focus on the next ten seconds.
I’m finally coming to realize that “following Christ” means a very “radical” but happy trust in the Mystery of God’s Presence within, as Provider/Source of all needs, personal, as well as financial and physical. But I suspect for most of us it’s very counterintuitive, and I feel like I sometimes reach this state by default, when the world fails me and I have “no where else to go”. There are amazing confirmations that seem to come however, when one begins to live life in this new realm ❤️