Live in the now, present moment
BEING a transformative communicator, we have to be aware and live within our present moment. To live in the present, we must believe deeply that what is most important is the here and the now. We are constantly distracted by things that have happened in the past or that might have happen in the future. It is not easy to remain focused on the present but we should have to face it and live with it. Our mind is hard to master and keeps pulling us away from the moment.
Beside it, prayer is the discipline of the moment. Because when we pray, we enter into the presence of God whose name is God-with-us. To pray is to listen attentively to the one who addresses us here and now. When we dare to trust that we are never be alone but God is always with us, always cares for us, and always speaks to us, then we can gradually detach ourselves from the voices that makes us guilty or anxious and thus, allow ourselves to dwell in the present moment. This is a last challenge because radical Trust in God is not obvious. Most of us distrust God. Most of us think of God as fearful, fugitive authority or as an empty, powerless nothing. Jesus’ core message was that it is neither a powerless weakling nor a powerful boss, but a lover whose only desire is to give us what our hearts most desire.
Remember that we are a transformative communicator of God’s word through teaching religion or theology subjects, or even other subjects that challenge us to know our weaknesses or strength that we live in the present moment and the present moment is through human experiences that we are always facing in doing our works. If we could just be for a few minutes each day fully where we are, we would indeed discover that we are not alone here and that one who is with us wants only one thing to give us love, and listening to the voice of love requires that we direct our minds and hearts toward that voice we advocate with all our attentions.
We should also be aware of our present life that this moment is somewhat a new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, and each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make new and upon living in the moment we must have also to appreciate what’s happening in the society either good or bad that it is only happen in one moment. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life and we live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the New Year always listening to a voice saying to us: “I have a gift for you and can’t wait for you to see it”.
Is it possible that our imagination can lead us through the truth of our lives? I think yes it can! The only problem is that we allow our past which becomes longer and longer each year to say to us: you know it all, you have seen it all, be realistic, the future will just be another repetition of the past. We must try to survive it at the best we can and think it that the present moment and now is our last day in the world.
To live again in the now and present moment, we should have a courage. Courage is to have heart. During the Eucharist we speak and hear about courage. The word courage comes from the Latin word “Coeur”, which means heart. Thus, to have courage is to listen to our heart, to speak from our heart and to act from our heart. Our heart which is the center of being is the heart of courage.
Often we debate current issues and express our opinions about them. But courage is taking a stance even an unpopular stance, not because we think differently from others but because from the center of our being or realize how to respond to the situation we are in. We have to be brave enough to face some of the challenges we always encountering as a good communicator and a good educator. Courage does not require spectacular gestures. We think courage often starts in small corners, thus it is courageous not to participate in gossip, not to talk behind someone’s back, not to ridicule another.
As a good educator we must have to be courageous to think well of other people and be grateful to them even when we live different lives than they do. It is courageous to reach out to a poor person, to spend time with a troubled child, to participate in action to prevent war and violent abuse and manipulations that’s why for us educators we should not think always the positive but also the negative aspects that happen to our lives and we refrain in thinking or acting biases that we allow ourselves to play favoritism. We must treat people in the society equally. Yes, we always read issues such as human right violations, some are political killings, kidnapping and others that’s why we have to fight for our rights. We must voice out what is in our heart and we have to follow our good principles. We have to be brave in telling the truth to the public and we should not cover all lies. We have to be models among the other people and be a good leader in the vineyard of the Lord. We must help the poor and oppressed and not treating them as an ordinary people in the society. We should also teach them to be courageous among themselves to voice out their principles and that is our role as a transformative communicator and an educator living now and the present moment.
By Freedie B. Balansi