MOMENTARINESS

We live here only momentarily.  What are we to do with our brief time here, then, precious as it is?  Nothing.  Nothing beyond what our instincts have us do, that is, which is to procreate, to perpetuate the species.  Eat and procreate.  That’s what we are to do.  It is what all living things do. 
 
We humans, though, believe that we are here to do additional things.  We are, for instance, to find God.  But this, as with all the other things that we decide are important to do, is merely an idea.
 
Or is it?  If we accept that, like the perpetuation of the species, finding God is also an instinct, then our view of finding God changes. 
 
We cannot, of course, deny that we have instincts and that they influence us.  The only thing about them that we have control over is whether or not we act on them.  Just because we feel the urge to procreate, for example, does not mean that we actually will.  Some will, some will not.

So, too, with our instinct to find God.   We may act on it or we may not.  It is only when the instinct is felt especially intensely, as it is with monks, nuns, and priests, that acting on it is certain.  For the rest of us, though, it is doubtful, given all the distractions that we face everyday, family, job, education, etc. 
 
When we, on the other hand, are reminded of how briefly we are alive, the importance of our discovering God while here is heightened.   

Meister Eckhart, the eminent Christian mystic of the 13^th Century, wrote that when we take one step toward God, God takes one hundred steps toward us.  And it was Jesus who said, the kingdom of God is within; it is not that far to go, and it only takes a moment.