There Is No Time In God

When I was little, I asked my parents where I had been before I was born and they told me that I had come from "God's pocket." It's a wonderful image, really, as well as being a clever way to avoid the "where do babies come from?" question that they didn't wish to address. The idea that I had a life with God before my life here on earth has been with me ever since.

Jesus said that He had come from God and that He was returning to God. I believe that we can say that, too. In a different form, we have all lived forever and in a different form, we will continue to live forever. I suppose you could call this "pre-existence" which is a Platonic notion, not a Christian one, but the scripture suggests that our souls have always lived, too. God tells the prophet Jeremiah "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." In Ephesians, Paul says that "He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world." My point is that God does not live in time; therefore, our existence has no beginning and no end for Him. It is all one. We live in time and are limited by its unfolding, but God is what the catechism calls, "omnipresent," that is, God is everywhere and in all times - past, present and to come.

Interesting theology, but does this have a bearing on how we live out our relationship with God? I believe that it does because we can bring the God of the present into our lives of the past and ask that God heal the wounds that occurred. It isn't the "past" to God, only to us. Whatever the moment, whether it be a mistake or a sin, a hurt or a heartbreak, God can enter in and change the consequences. How else can Romans promise that "Everything happens for the good for those who love the Lord?" When we bring God into every moment of our lives, our lives change.

Guilt, worry, fear and regret are the product of a mindset that believes that "what's done is done and cannot be undone." However, nothing is final with God. With God, "all things are new" because God is like a time traveler, appearing in and out of our existence as we make Him present. Our God is not limited. Only we can make Him so.

Psychic Pain

As Mom continues to hang on to the last threads of her physical life, I'm struck by how tempting it is to hang onto our own psychic pain. There is something comforting about it. Like an old friend, it knows who we are – and reassures us that we know who we are -the victim, the abused or even the school bully. However negative, at least it’s an identity. Changing it is frightening.

Letting go of hurt or of anger requires that we change and move out of automatic responses and perspectives. Of course my mother was emotionally unavailable! Of course my spouse doesn’t understand me or meet my needs! Of course that group is responsible for my lot in life! Of course…of course…of course

And then one day, God gives us the opportunity to see things differently and accept the healing we’ve prayed for or the forgiveness that we need. It requires merely a decision on our part to change the words to the tune we’ve been singing all our life – to “take every thought captive” and replace our Of course with I used to think…

We can live in the past that we can’t change or change the today that we can.