“Live in the moment.” “Don’t think of the future.” “Forget the past.”
These are all common philosophies of the day. Popularized by “spiritual” authors such as Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now, they try to teach us to train our minds to focus only on the present. They say that the past is done, and the future not yet written.
Why does only the present count? Why should we forget what is past?
Guilt has a way of wracking your conscience. It plays scenes on repeat in your mind’s eye. You can’t run and hide from what plays on in your head. “Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” Is the Kingdom the leaven in your life? Or is your mind being leavened by sin and guilt?
Sinner. At night you lie down to sleep. You close your eyes. Exhausted. But you get no rest.
The closest many ever come to a clean conscience is by giving up one of their most precious possessions: their memories. They are artificially inducing Alzheimer’s before its time. They live in the present to forget the past. To forget the guilt that tugs at their hearts.
True rest is a beautiful thing. It comes from letting God cleanse you of your sins as you walk in His precepts. “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
Lord, forgive me my sins – past, present, and future. Unburden my heart. Allow me to lie down in peaceful rest tonight.
How will you sleep tonight?
