There's No Time Like the Present

There’s No Time like the Present!
Eph. 5:16

As we begin the New Year, the year of 2011, do so with a renewed focus on time. Start the year with celebration and worship. We hope to help you do that through our Sunday night focus that is designed this year to assist you in growing deeper in your intimacy with God so that your witness to neighbor will be more positive and Christlike. We will have four Sunday nights focusing on devotion time, time dedicated specifically and wholly to our personal relationship with God.
I had a unique lesson on time during the Christmas season when I visited my aunt and uncle (Barbara and Wint Wilks), who live in Madeira Beach, Florida. Aunt Barbara wasn’t shy to let me know how much she would love to have Debbie and me stay with them at their condo when Debbie went down for her winter on-campus master’s class at University of South Florida. We traveled down on a Thursday and Friday, spent Friday and Saturday nights with them, and then drove home the whole way on Sunday December 13th.
Each discussion with them was a learning experience related to time. You see, my uncle is at the point where he knows that he has Alzheimer’s disease and spends some days just crying for up to five hours. Therefore, Barbara quickly taught Debbie and me on Friday night, when she was able to speak a few seconds when Uncle Wint wasn’t looking or listening, that we don’t use the word remember, because he doesn’t remember. That word makes him anxious. We also don’t talk about the future, because they know what their future holds, and it isn’t good. I tried to listen, learn and link/respond according to her guidance. Therefore, for roughly 38 hours, we talked and lived ONLY IN THE PRESENT (as much as possible).
Aunt Barbara would be behind Uncle Wint making motions to me and moving her lips, “We don’t say that!” or “We don’t do that!” Debbie’s car wouldn’t start Saturday morning and she was already running behind in order to be on the campus in Tampa by 9 am. Barbara quickly let me know that any experience that has a “stressor” in it can drive him over the edge. Therefore, we calmly and quietly tried to get her car started (I had jumper cables, but their Cadillac doesn’t have a black battery terminal that is visible, or for me finable. Fortunately, Jack the maintenance man knew how to ground it elsewhere). My guess is that additional anxiety or new stress could cause him to cry or even, at some stage become violent. Did you know that anxiety and stress can immediately cause someone else near you to go over the edge? Hmmm!
“Look at those beautiful waves lapping on the white sand!” I said as we looked out of their second floor window onto the beach and gulf only 40 feet away. “Do you see any dolphins out there?” “Wave at the people! They are waving at us!” I never knew how hard it was to constantly and consistently live ONLY in the present! I made lots of mistakes and left feeling like a bit of a failure. It was like learning a new language for me! Debbie’s and my presence was not a waste, however, according to Aunt Barbara. On Saturday afternoon, I was able to stay with Uncle Wint long enough for her to go for a one hour walk on the beach. During that one hour Uncle Wint looked for her out the window, walked outside the condo door to make sure their car was there. He would ask where she was. He literally cannot be away from her without completely drifting into a state of fear. But for her, she received one hour of peace and respite! Just one hour evidently can make a world of difference!
What does all this have to do with us? We have some church members who are battling Alzheimer’s Disease. Many of us also have extended family who have to deal with this horrible disease. I am going to challenge us, during our four Sunday nights of January (9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th), to become much more committed and consistent with regular private devotional time with God – spiritual formation is another term for that. Brother Lawrence called it “Practicing the Presence of God.” This is similar to my feeble attempts with my aunt and uncle. We cannot do this with others if we don’t do it first and foremost with God in our own lives.
We will begin each Sunday at 5:30 in the Family Life Center with a meal and then gather in the sanctuary from 6 – 7 pm for focused time on learning to deepen the intimacy that we have with our living and loving God. Just 5 or 10 minutes alone with God makes a world of difference! When we do that, we will be more immersed in the presence of God in the present, the here and now, and then we will be a present of God’s presence to those around us, some of whom are living on the edge! We do make a difference! May our difference ever grow more in tune with the Spirit of Christ who offers peace to those who follow and know him!

Dr. Fitzgerald