The Unattended Moment by Maxie Dunnam

I read T. S. Eliot’s poetry, even though I have to struggle to read and understand it. I keep reminding myself that what he expresses is worth the arduous effort and energy I might exert in reading him. One of his geniuses is his creation of power-packed phrases and images. Here is one of them:

“For most of us, there is only the unattended Moment.”

The unattended Moment.  I want to ponder that image as we continue our reflection on Jesus’ call, “Don’t be anxious about tomorrow.” In our last article, pondering this call, we made the case that when we are anxious about tomorrow we take on excessive anxiety about things we cannot change and many of us are paralyzed with fear of our inability to live the Christian life.  If fear of tomorrow or the day after tomorrow consumes us, we will miss the possibilities of the richness of living today.

A preacher friend tells of a person who, awakening to how dingy his life and world had become because of his worrying, made a worry table. Analyzing how he and other people worried, he concluded that 40 percent of most worries never happen; 30 percent were about past decisions we cannot alter. 12 percent about criticism (mostly untrue) of us by others, usually arising from envy and misunderstanding; 10 percent were about personal health that only grew worse with worry; and only 8 percent were legitimate concerns that need our attention. All of this means that when we worry we waste a lot of time and energy, and overlook opportunities which may never come again to us, special moments that may occur only once in our lifetime. 

Unattended moments. Think of the hugs that we have shunned because we were worrying, the spontaneous surprises of children growing up, the wayside miracles in nature, the fun of playing together, the secrets that we could have known, the beauty we could have shared.  The unattended moment is packed with possibilities for richness, meaning, and growth. But we miss it because we are not focusing our eyes on the present and are anxious about tomorrow. The greatest price we pay for worry is the loss of the richness of living today.

We need to hear clearly, and heed Jesus’ words: “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?”  I’m seeking to live by the conviction that we can trust God for tomorrow, because we can trust God for today.

A member of our congregation and a dear friend knows this truth as well as anyone I know. He is an alcoholic, but has celebrated over twenty years of sobriety. He remains sober because of his one-day-at-a-time trust in the Lord. He wrote a contemporary gospel song which expresses this truth in a memorable way. The title of the song and its message are a simple prayer he heard an old man pray: “Lord, we know what you’re gonna’ do ’cause we see what you’ ve already done.”

Focus again on the powerful image with which I began my reflection: violets cracking rocks. It’s a powerful picture. A tiny, fragile violet with so much life in its tiny structure, with so much thrust for sunlight and air that it literally cracks the rocks and pokes through so that it can peek at the sunlight and finally burst forth in its pristine purple glory. Paul said that nothing in all the world can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. We can trust God for tomorrow, because we can trust God for today. 

Someone reminded me recently that what lies behind us and before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.’ I know that I have the Holy Spirit within me. That means I have power, like the violet, to crack all the rocks of circumstances. So I listen to Jesus: “don’t be anxious about tomorrow”!