THE LEASE ON life allotted to us on this earth is the most precious gift we have. Unfortunately, we often make bad use of it, and waste it in numerous ways. We either dissipate it through boredom or erode it by fretting about all our yesterdays and tomorrows. Our past deeds stalk us with feelings of guilt and regret, whereas the future is dark and uncertain: I should have gone on to university or married that person; what if I loose my job or get some incurable disease?
Our life's, and hence our time's, true foes are precisely these 'should haves' and 'what ifs'. They either take us back to an unalterable past or forward to an unforeseeable future. These foes come and rob us of this present moment in so subtle a manner that we hardly notice them. Life, however, is in the here and the now. We must learn to live every day of our lives, nay, every single second, as a new beginning, as a new opportunity which God is generously giving to us.
The Christmas we have just celebrated is a reminder that God exists, and that He reveals Himself through a Child. His voice says, I am; I exist. I am here with you and for you. I guard you 'as the apple of my eye'. I take you by the hand; fear not; let not your heart be troubled. Let not the past weigh down on you nor the future alarm you. Live in the present, and feel your freedom and My presence in this present.
Helen Mallicoat brings this out in her remarkable lines:
I was regretting the past and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking:
MY NAME IS I AM.
He paused. I waited. He continued.
When you live in the past with its mistakes and
Regrets, it is hard. I am not there.
MY NAME IS NOT I WAS.
When you live in the future, with its problems and
Fears, it is hard. I am not there.
MY NAME IS NOT I WILL BE.
When you live in this moment, it is not hard.
I am here.
MY NAME IS I AM.
In this editorial I would therefore like to share with you, dear readers, these three small gems of wisdom:
- START OVER! Start over again even if you feel beaten and tired. Even amid failure and depression, betrayal and disappointment. Start over again even if your eyes are bloodshot with grief, and your sacrifices go unrecognised, with ingratitude as you only reward. Start over again even if blindness or indifference in others takes the smile away from your lips. Start again because, even in the worst situations, love is always victorious. Start again because God, too, starts again with us every day in his obstinate insistence in forgiving our many betrayals.
- TAKE TIME! Take time to think, because thinking is humankind's great privilege; take time to read, it is a fountain of wisdom; take time to pray, it is the greatest power on earth; take time to love and be loved, it is a God-given privilege; take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness; take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul; take time to give, it is too short a day to be selfish; take time to do charity, it is the key to heaven.
Use the treasure of time as a gift of God to you; a gift to be used for others, to be lived to the full in the midst of great choices as in the smallest gestures.
- HOPE! Hope to find strength and courage in every situation. Hope for the capacity to see, with the eyes of faith, the golden earn of corn in the dying seed. Remember: hope is the one thing that makes life beautiful and worthy to be lived; it is silent, but creative. It changes our expression, and gives meaning to life. God is in this hope.
A Happy New Year to all of you, dear readers!
Updated on October 06 2016