The Rest of our Lives?

Richard Rohr, in the collection of reflections I am reading this Advent season, writes:

Several years ago when I was in Nicaragua, I asked a man if he had time, and he said, “I have the rest of my life,” and smiled. Who of us would possibly say that? That is what we don’t have. What we don’t have is the rest of our lives because we do not even have the now of our lives. The decisions we have made in our past have decided our tomorrows; the credit cards and mortgages, the planned obsolescence of almost everything we own, is keeping us all running. And we are not sure why. We don’t have the rest of our lives. They are all determined. . . . Time is exactly what we do not have. What decreases in a culture of affluence is precisely and strangely time–along with wisdom and friendship. These are the very things that the human heart was created for, that the human heart feeds on and lives for. No wonder we are producing so many depressed, unhealthy and even violent people, while also leaving a huge carbon footprint on this poor planet.

The deep Christmas truth is that, in Jesus, God has come into NOW and shares each moment with us. That assurance, if we cling to it, enables us to live mindfully and wisely in the present, freeing us from fearful, anxious decisions and reactions that further complicate and entangle our lives. And, it gives us back the rest of our lives by inspiring us to live with confidence, alertness, and hope.