The First and the Last

Of course, this is a famous ancient quote from the Bible. The symbolic statement is still very important for humans, a vivid reference to their conviction that God--ultimate reality--is eternal, that God is, was, and will become, that God existed before the Big Bang billions of years past and will exist after the demise of the cosmos in billions of years future. (See several of my posts on philosopher Charles Hartshorne and others for more on that.)

Today, let's bring the image down to where our very finite shoe sole meets the ground in front of us, now, here, this second.

Think of yourself now, and others now, individuals you personally know now--the transcendental reality here at this moment, this hour, this very day.

Cosmology is fascinating, but so much of it is abstraction
and hypothesis.

In contrast, our conscious moment, right now, is an actual
fact--you and I exist right now
(except for atheists such as
Sam Harris who claim we don’t,
that each of our “I”s is an illusion).

This next second, minute, hour, day is our first step into the future. With that typed key, I did step.

And possibly it could be our last second, last minute, last hour, last day (and eventually some finite moment, depending on when we were conceived in the past, will be our last). 150,000 humans died today and many thousands were conceived.

252 births, 107 deaths per minute.

All we have for sure is now, this next moment.

So live as if this is always true—this moment, this minute, this hour, this day—is our first of what is to become.

Because this moment is all we have.

Why do we so often become preoccupied with superficial stuff, choose wrongly, let our inner self be twisted by immoral media or our dark side? Why do we focus on resentments, hurts, fears? Do we have time?

This next moment, sooner or later, in the not too distant future will be the last of who we have been.

So live NOW! Every moment in one sense is our first and last--never to become again.

Live for what is transcendent in this present now.


In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox