The Loss of Now

I Samuel 15:27, 28 "As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, 'The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors - to one better than you.'"


There's a silly game I play once in a while when I'm out with my kids. They're still at a young age and we can do things like go to the park, the zoo, etc, and sometimes when I'm getting the sense that these years are flying by, I pretend that I was an old man and asked God to bring me back to this particular day, this particular moment. It probably seems foolish, I'm aware of that, but it has the surprising ability to bring me into that moment, to draw me into the NOW, and appreciate what I'm doing with them without the distracting thoughts that can cause these moments to pass without engagement.

Today was one of those days. There's nothing like a crisp, clear, 70 degree August day in Boston. I was watching my kids in a local park and my mind was elsewhere. So I played my little mind game and sat there enjoying the simplicity of them laughing on the swingset, as if it were an answer to an old man's prayers. God has an amazing ability to regift the present.

The loss of Now is a frightening thing. That's why Saul is so desperate in I Samuel 15. He loses now. He's done - as of that very moment. It's not a vague, disconnected future loss, the kind that seldom seems to affect or move us. The kingdom is pulled away from him - now.

So many people sacrifice the future because they can’t see it’s immediacy. Athletes and steroids. Rock stars and drugs. Young people and sex/drugs/alcohol - and tanning booths. We all do it, so I can understand Saul not being too upset when Samuel pronounces in chapter 13 that his future kingdom will be pulled from his family. But chapter 15 is an entirely different story - he's frantic. He pulls at the old prophet's robes, pleading with him for another chance. Why? Because of that one word that Samuel uses: TODAY. "Don't take today away from me!"

NOW is a wonderful gift from God. Don't go through today in a haze of a million un-doable and unknowable things. Sit with your kids and enjoy them. Empty out your resources to advance God's kingdom. Pour yourself into His Word and His work. Call, visit, write, forgive, move, give, help, lift, touch, embrace, feed, clean, clothe, love . . . . anything but nothing. If NOW is so precious that it will bring a king to tears, why are we wasting it?