There is an old saying about the importance of right now. It is originally attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, but many of us will remember it being wise counsel from Master Oogway of Kung Fu Panda fame:
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, which is why we call it the present.”
You might be living a stretch of life where your today feels like anything but a gift… or something you may want to regift or return. In this post we invite you to consider what a blessing now is and why your salvation is not a distant experience but found in this exact moment!
Now Is a Gift From God
In a previous post, Justin Baer noted that time itself is a generous and merciful gift that God has given us:
“We know that Adam and Eve did, in fact, eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And what happened then? Did they die? Well, yes, and no…He allowed Adam and Eve to live long, fruitful lives after partaking of the fruit, even though he told them they would “surely die.” He gave them time.”
Paradoxically, the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob taught that our time “was lengthened”1 (as a doctrine), but at the end of his life he would emphasize that time is something that “flies on wings of lightning.”2 Please note that Jacob’s prefaced this observation by saying that this was the best of his knowledge:
“I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream.”3
Remember that, among other things, Jacob experienced (1) the complete dissolution of his family, (2) witnessed the miracle of the Lord’s intervention with Sherem, and (3) even saw the Redeemer. There is something of spiritual and practical value – rising within a life of remarkable experiences – that inspired him to emphasize his perspective on how the experience of time works.4
It seems that now is a gift that is accompanied with an accountability that is deeply personal. When we fail to meet standards, there is a form of structural accountability. When we choose to make less of this moment than what we know is possible, our private regret will eventually overpower our social denial. Perhaps these words of John Greenleaf Whitter – often quoted by Thomas S. Monson, is the essence of the experience of mortality:
“For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest of these, ‘It might have been.’”5
Life Always Takes The Form of Now
We invest much of our time, attention, and energy into evaluating our past and history at large. This is wise, because “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”6 Further, we set goals and plot out how we are going to achieve those goals at some point in the future. This process is the essence of faith.7 That being said, if we are to see “things as they really are,”8 then we would recognize that both the past and the future continually converge right now – and what we do with this moment creates both!9
It is interesting to note that it is the past that moves forward into the present while the future is currently looking back on what is happening right now in a dependent state. In the event that this view feels a bit too much like a philosophy of man, we note that Elder Neal A. Maxwell once validated this view on time – and that we always live in “the holy present”:
The past of each of us is now inflexible. We need to concentrate on what has been called “the holy present,” for now is sacred; we never really live in the future. The holy gift of life always takes the form of now. (emphasis added)
Indeed. Now is where everything happens. This does NOT mean that we should live in a state of frantic scramble, but that we should patiently and diligently invest our attention and effort into what matters most in this moment.10
Now is the Day of Salvation
Astonishingly, even our salvation is not an event of distant time or space. Paul wrote that “now is the accepted time behold, now is the day of salvation.”11 Additionally, Amulek invited us to “come forth and harden not your hearts… [because] now is the time and the day of your salvation; and… if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.”12
Wait…. What?
Yes! Empowerment is found in this exact moment. Change is found in the now. Progress is absent in procrastination.
So, of course, there is a lot riding on what happens right now. Given that, we should expect that there will be competing demands on how we use our now and what deserves our time or attention. For example, the philosophy of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die”13is an anthem as to how to best use the gift of now – misguided as it may be.14 This anthem will be contrasted with the invitation to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven15 and to lose ourselves in a greater cause.16
Truly, the amount of torque on the present is breathtaking and you must remember that your now really matters! So taught Thomas S. Monson:
And so I ask, “What are we doing with today?” If we live only for tomorrow, we’ll have a lot of empty yesterdays today… Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable.
President Russel M. Nelson has repeatedly taught us to appreciate what can be done in this moment – including encouraging us to have “confidence in approaching God right now!”17
Given that your life only exists in the now, that now is the day of your salvation, and that now is a special gift from God, it is plainly evident that there is spiritual merit to the term carpe diem. There is real power in the Holy Present! Deiter F. Uchtdorf put it this way:
“Do you want to change the shape of your life? Change the shape of your day. Do you want to change your day? Change this hour. Change what you think, feel, and do at this very moment.”
One might expect that sharing the best of his knowledge might be something other than a commentary on the experience of time. For example, he could have said “you know, jealousy can motivate you to attempt to murder your immediate family,” or “Sherem learned the hard way to tempt go by seeking for signs – so don’t do that,” or “I have learned that it is not a good idea to act like God’s commanded voyage across the ocean is a booze cruise.” ↩︎
Gordon B. Hinckley put it this way: ““None of us may rightly say that his life is his own. Our lives are gifts of God. We come into the world not of our own volition. We leave not according to our wish. Our days are numbered not by ourselves, but according to the will of God. So many of us use our lives as if they were entirely our own. Ours is the choice to waste them if we wish. But that becomes a betrayal of a great and sacred trust.” Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Gordon B. Hinckley, Chapter 14 ↩︎
George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man., ca. 1962 ↩︎
A perspective well captured by songwriter Howard Jones, “I don’t need to remind you that life is short and life is sweet, and before you even know it the past and future gonna meet.”, “Tomorrow is Now,” People, 1998 ↩︎
This includes concluding that “…slow-time perception and action can be learned unconsciously, through experience and training… [and] that at least to some degree, some trained individuals can actively turn on slow-time perception and processing.” Buckley R (2014) Slow time perception can be learned Psychol. 5:209. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00209 and Allison Parshall, “Time Slows Down When We See Something Memorable.” Scientific American↩︎
Other modern acronyms, such as YOLO (you only live once) or FOMO (fear of missing out) can put real pressure on our judgment, sentiments, and emotions related to what we perceive should be happening right now. This is also why so many “isms” take the fullness of what now offers – including workaholism. ↩︎
