I do not always write my blog posts in sequential order. While listening to the song by Velma Frye “Ever Flowing” I began to write this entry.

At any moment the fully present mind can shatter time and burst into Now.

BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST

What constitutes the Now for you? That ever present yet ineffable, indescribable, unspeakable beauty and joy of the Kingdom of God? How often are you able to shatter time and burst into the Now that Brother Steindel-Rast describes? It happens to me rarely, yet each time it does seems so remarkable that I am certain I will never forget it.

Then I have something totally distracting like foot surgery and those times escape me. If only I could remember to turn to music like this when I am distracted by the physical and be drawn into the Now of the Kingdom!

In case you did not listen yesterday, here is a fresh chance to sink into this truth. Perhaps it will enable you to break away from the distracting physical and burst into the Now of current presence before and with the Living God? The lyrics are by Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB.

O, ever-changing God, protect us from congealing,

Ever flowing, ever flowing, ever flowing, ever flowing.

​‘Til we flow into a Sacred Stream,
‘Til we flow into that Eternal Drink which is You.

Then pour us back into the world
​and let the flowing begin again,

And again, and again, and again.

The river of living water is ever flowing from the throne of God. (Revelation 22:1)

If we are to break from the confines of time as Brother Steindl-Rast suggests, we need to understand basic differences between ourselves and God. As a child you might have been soaked in the terms of an analog clock or a digital. God the Father is constrained by neither. Rather than try to put into words the concepts of God and our reliance upon time I decided to let “Got Questions” summarize it for us. “We live in a physical world with its four known space-time dimensions of length, width, height (or depth) and time. However, God dwells in a different realm—the spirit realm—beyond the perception of our physical senses.

In Psalm 90:4, Moses used a simple yet profound analogy in describing the timelessness of God: “For a thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” The eternity of God is contrasted with the temporality of man. Our lives are but short and frail, but God does not weaken or fail with the passage of time. The Lord does not count time as we do. He is above and outside of the sphere of time. God sees all of eternity’s past and eternity’s future. The time that passes on earth is of no consequence from God’s timeless perspective. A second is no different from an eon; a billion years pass like seconds to the eternal God. https://www.gotquestions.org/God-time.html

For a thousand years in your sight
    are like yesterday when it is past
    or like a watch in the night. Psalm 90:4 NRSVUE

How can you bring your fully present mind to this moment and burst through to shatter time and go into the Present NOW? I would have to say you simply cannot without practice. And if, by chance, you do it once without practice that has to be God breaking through to you! I can only attain a fully present mind with practice. I am SO easily distracted, she wrote as the lawn treatment guy road past the window on his fertilizer dispenser ….

Yes, God, protect me from congealing… like jello that gloms on to the dish and does not want to be washed off. Protect me from ruminating on past hurts and slights. Protect me from the distractions of this life, 1 John 2: 16 for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world.

Protect me from congealing. Help me flow in the things of You and with Your living water. Help me shatter time and burst into Your Now!