The Lord is not just eternally everywhere but also eternally now. His name, “I AM,” is present tense. Jesus emphasized this with the most profound violation of grammar ever spoken. In John 8:58, he said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Yet the present tense is also the presence of tension. “Your word is a lamp to my feet,” says Psalm 119:105. This is as much a challenge as a comfort. All we are given to see is where to step next—nothing more. Is this enough?
The phrase “eternal life” consists of two words that deserve to be unpacked. “Eternal” means unbounded in time. “Life,” by definition, involves development and growth. Every living thing is changing. To have “eternal life” is to have eternal change. To have eternal life, in other words, is to have boundless becoming—the state of forever turning into someone new.
Alongside such a promise, the finiteness of earthly life is just a paltry threat. Earthly life will end, but we will not. Nevertheless, most of us still live as though the ticking clock contains us. Many of us still worry as though the passing of each year’s calendar diminishes who we might be.
We who have experienced forgiveness can appreciate that walking with God means leaving the prison of the past. However, the walk with God just as truly involves leaving the shadow of the future. God is now, and it is God, right now, who invites us to know him. It is God who invites us into the joy of joining with the fresh and flourishing work that I AM is doing today.
To seek God, we turn away from our fascination with past and future alike.
To discover the gift of God, we open up the present.
Yet the present tense is also the presence of tension. “Your word is a lamp to my feet,” says Psalm 119:105. This is as much a challenge as a comfort. All we are given to see is where to step next—nothing more. Is this enough?
The phrase “eternal life” consists of two words that deserve to be unpacked. “Eternal” means unbounded in time. “Life,” by definition, involves development and growth. Every living thing is changing. To have “eternal life” is to have eternal change. To have eternal life, in other words, is to have boundless becoming—the state of forever turning into someone new.
Alongside such a promise, the finiteness of earthly life is just a paltry threat. Earthly life will end, but we will not. Nevertheless, most of us still live as though the ticking clock contains us. Many of us still worry as though the passing of each year’s calendar diminishes who we might be.
We who have experienced forgiveness can appreciate that walking with God means leaving the prison of the past. However, the walk with God just as truly involves leaving the shadow of the future. God is now, and it is God, right now, who invites us to know him. It is God who invites us into the joy of joining with the fresh and flourishing work that I AM is doing today.
To seek God, we turn away from our fascination with past and future alike.
To discover the gift of God, we open up the present.
