Grace To Live Life In The Present

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Many of us would like to let go of our worries and anxieties. We would like to live fully in the present, seeing what is truly here now and seeing who we really are now. We would like to let go of the fear of the future and regrets or mistakes from the past and yet, there they are still pervading through our thoughts.

Perhaps one seeks liberation from their fear and worries through prayer or meditation, through listening to sermons and lectures from respected individuals. We are looking for something better, something of truth to apply to our lives. And so the actual transformation that is desired, a transformation that will bring us peace, is frustrated. We are still seeking something in the future or something from someone else. We think that if we could only find this answer that we are seeking things would be better, who we are would be better. So long as we think of finding peace and joy that is found by living fully now in the present, as something that we can do to bring about, we are caught in a perpetual longing for something that never really comes.

But then, we get this feeling. It is a feeling that there is something we’re missing but has actually been here all along. As though there were someone standing beside but always just beyond the corner of our eye’s ability to see. This feeling dispels the previously prevailing feeling which was the cause of our fears and worries based in the past and future. It is a transformation of thoughts and our perspectives towards them. It transforms our thoughts from being a dominating force upon us into simple tools that we can use for life and relationship with one another.

And then there is another strange feeling. It is the feeling that I myself am not the one who is bringing this transformation about. All along I was thinking that if only I could find the answer, if I only I could live better or be better, and all along it was never me who really did any of this; rather, it happened because it is what is happening. It is the same feeling that one gets when they are working on a project they are extremely passionate about, like when an artist is painting. One so involved with love for what they are doing can work for hours and hours and feel like they’ve exhausted little effort in the process. Whereas; if one works hard of their own effort, they grow quite tired and exhausted.

This is what I call Grace and is not something that is contained by any specific religion. Grace is always present in the present, and when we are there as it is always here, we find it.

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