One question I have had in my mind that I have been seeking the answer to for some time is this:
"How Does one reconcile with the immediate nature of life (we could be gone a moment from now), with the need to work toward a tomorrow that may never come?"
I think an answer that came to me that was worth exploration was one word:
Trajectory.
Let me explain.
We only exist in this very moment, and in such, we can only do that which we can right here and now. I wrote a piece some time ago entitled All Change is Immediate in which I make the argument that all change we make is made literally in the here and now, consistently, for the rest of our lives. And, while it was a little "Woo Woo", the truth is that in prayer and meditation, we can listen to that voice (the conscience) that tells us right from wrong, and we can make the decision to do what is right.
The days where I can go to bed without anxieties are the days in which I did the right thing consistently. The days which I go to bed and wake at 2am in a cold sweat are the days in which I did not. Were I to die in the next moment, it will have been this trajectory that will have mattered. It will have been this understanding that I was aiming for something more, that I was aiming for God in all things I do, aiming to see Him everywhere I look, and in hope to continue toward Him after my bodily end.
Trajectory is what matters. Heaven is a perpetual trajectory into eternity. Heaven is not "sometime in the future" - it can be experienced in the Here and Now; It is also "sometime in the future" in that it is our highest hope. It is "already, but not yet."
It is not that I "am already saved", but that I am, but also hope to be, and am in the process of being so.
This is the eschatological view of The Church.
So, as I continue to find, every question I have ever had has already been answered.
As always, God bless, and until next time.
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