"Christians are claimed by a past that hopes for the future by drinking deeply of the present. They are daring persons for whom belief is etched with faithful doubts. They hold tenaciously to what has been bequeathed, yet they gamble on the new being born."
-W. Paul Jones, The Art of Spiritual Direction
This idea really resonates with me, as both a Christ-follwer and an historian. We are shaped by the past, and long for the future...but both must also inform our actions in the present!
"If wakeful Christians harbor a wish for heaven to fulfill, they wish not for an escape from reality but a deeper acquaintance with reality. When wakeful Christians lament this life, they grieve this world's trivialization of itself that obscures the more profound reality of the kingdom of God in our midst.
"Yet, more often wakeful Christians celebrate life, finding the mark of God's hand in this world and beginning their praise with the discovery of the holy here. 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory' (Isaiah 6:3)."
-J. Marshall Jenkins, A Wakeful Faith
I think this sort of faith-filled, wakeful awareness is what Jones means by "drinking deeply of the present." As Christians we do not merely ignore the screeching and suffering of the world around us; rather we are called to seek out and redeem the works of God in his people and in creation.
Amen!
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