Meditation: Gift of time

What is more precious than anything in the world?
Time!
And what do we waste uselessly and without being sorry?

Time!
What do we not value and what do we disregard more than anything?
Time!

When we waste time, we lose ourselves … Time is given by God to use correctly for the salvation of the soul and the acquisition of the life to come … The Lord will call us to account for having stolen time for our own whims, and for not using it for God and our souls.

Sebastian of Optina Monastery

O God, you are my God,

but I live separate from you.

When I was young

I saw our separation as an issue of place,

but now I know that it is an issue of time.

You have gifted me a seemingly unlimited

number of moments to know you in myself.

You are there with me each moment,

but because I live in time and not in your eternal moment

I fail to notice you as I look to my next moment.

Created in your image and with your kingdom in me,

I taste hints of your presence in

moments of prayer,

moments of beauty,

moments of insight.

But when I reach to prolong the moment

I have moved away and you have not. 

I lose time when I distract myself with foolish entertainment,

when I stop being alive because I am "waiting until",

or when my best plan fails and I frustrate myself,

ignoring the new opportunity not of my making.

My Creator, you have given me 
time - to discover,

time - to grow in your image.

Moment by moment you guide me; but

moment by moment I surrender to distraction and frustration.

Your kingdom is within me, and I just don't notice when

I entertain my whims, or to resent the thwarting of my plans.

O God, you are my God. You live within me,

but I live separate from you.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time when I am reaching out to you" and then a few moments reminding yourself of some of the blessings God has given you - the clear signs of God's love for you.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for Jesus' personal message for you.

If you would prefer a Bible reading I suggest John 17,20-23 - Jesus' prayer ...

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

1. Read this passage or the meditation slowly a couple of times.
2. What word of phrase jumps out to speak to you?
3. Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.
4. Then spend 5, or 10, or 20 minutes with those words, or the word ONE or UNITY. You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds. After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen. 

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock. 

At the end thank God, and return to your day