Time and Change

My spiritual growth has brought me to a new perception of time as well as a new way of looking at change. At the beginning of my spiritual journey, I thought time was something on the face of a clock and something that was  described and predicted in various books.  I vigorously hung on to my perception of the world and the people who populated it (including myself)  as being things I could change, and I felt guilty and inadequate when I could not live up to this self-expectation.

Time

For years I have tried to reconcile my own spiritual beliefs with a concrete, commonly accepted perception of time. I have come to believe that God does not perceive time the way mankind does. This morning I found an excellent explanation of the way I believe God perceives  time:  According to Dr. Paul O. (1995, There’s More to Quitting Drinking than Quitting Drinking): “There is no past or future in Gods world, only this present moment. Time is an invention of man in his attempt to make sense of the Big Picture. God knows only the eternal Now….When we mind-trip into the past or into the future, we travel alone. God stays in reality, in the Now (O., 1995, There’s More to Quitting Drinking than Quitting Drinking, p. 159).”

The same author goes on to explain, “Nothing is unforeseen by God. Not because He has predetermined it (God is more all-knowing than all-controlling), but because He has always known that everything would be precisely the way it is right now. Every pebble, every blade of grass is where it has been known through all eternity that it would be at this precise moment” (p. 159). This rather profound proclamation can be more easily understood if God is perceived as always being in the reality of now with no context of past and future.

So, if I am living in the reality of “now,” then I need to live life on life’s terms. I need to stop being motivated by the need for approval and childish, stubbornly held onto beliefs that I can fix everything, everything has to be fair, and everybody will be honest.

Change

When something upsets me emotionally, I often want to analyze it to death so I can attribute cause/blame in order to “fix” the something. I have since learned that I always need to consider my attitude in regards to whatever is bothering me and,  almost always, the only thing I can realistically change in the “reality of the now” is my myself (my attitudes). Furthermore, my attitude most often needs to be changed to one of acceptance.

In reference to time and change, then, does this mean I am only responsible for being and nothing else? Well, the answer for me is both “yes” and “no.”  Yes, because I need to focus my mind  and spirit on being fully present in the here and how—-not in  the here and now I would like it to be, the here and now I have worried about,  or a here and now I have experienced in the past. No, because I need to realize problems in the “now” are best approached by examining how my own attitudes are influencing the situation. I am responsible in the eternal “now” to  accept reality as it is, and if guided by my Higher Power to change something, it is most often my own attitudes that need changed.

Please share your thoughts and comments on this topic. May God  bless and keep you.