plans (screwtape #15)

"Thats why we're given life, to try things out. We aren't gonna be here forever...now tell me what do you do when you aren't visiting funerals?"

-Harold & Maude

There is something sort of esoteric about time. It's a paradox of an absurd cancer and encouraging transport all at once whose definition is subject to the illustrator or observer. C.S. Lewis believed time, the ideas of past, present, and future, are tasted only by mortals. God simply is, after all the name "I AM" would imply no need for an adjective, definition, or for that matter, state of time.

We unfortunately do exist in only one state...the present. We, however, have the choice of deciding whether time will be our fuel or our parasite. Screwtape understands time's curse and makes clear the best way to blind a human from the taste of sweet creation and spiritual essence is to let them become engulfed in a saturated focus on the past or future...places which are really only states of mind where God may exist, but humans cannot access holistically.

In America we plan our spiritual life. We get in vans and drive to Mexico to serve the poor, but look at bums in the local coffee shop and say, "God helps those who help themselves." We spend our days fluctuating between television and computer screens for the purpose of entertainment and profit, never really breaking a sweat unless we go to a gym. Thats why we have retreats so much.

The Egyptians captivated the Isrealites to the point where time faded because there were no days of the week, only the infintely powered gear system of a giant clock known as slavery. We have no concept of timeless suffering in America, so sabbath to us is something we take because life is "tough." We've complicated things into a dirty, dusty, web of the past and future, all the while missing the moment where we can do the simplest of God's commands, love him, love people.

Its not a question of discipline and boundries, its simple values. If we valued seeing who God is, we'd experience his creation, if we actually rested a moment to let a person's suffering be revealed to us, we'd be capable of spontaneous action, but we are not. We complicate things further by creating retreats, mission trips, slide shows, etc. to relive and look forward to someday experiencing what smacks us in our free world faces every single day.