{"id":2251,"date":"2023-01-02T08:11:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T13:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2251"},"modified":"2023-01-02T08:11:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-02T13:11:12","slug":"the-greatest-moment-of-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/02\/the-greatest-moment-of-your-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Moment of Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
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The month of January is named for the Roman god Janus.\u00a0
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Janus was one weird-looking dude.
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He was customarily portrayed with two faces.\u00a0 One face was looking toward the past, while the other was pointed toward the future.\u00a0 Janus thus became the Roman god of doors, transitions, time, passages, and change itself.\u00a0 He has been associated with New Year\u2019s Eve even longer than lighted glass balls in Times Square.
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The word \u201cjanitor\u201d is derived from Janus, since the bearer of that title is usually responsible, among other things, for watching over a building\u2019s doors.
\u00a0
The first week of January invites a kind of two-directional fixation.\u00a0 We look back on the major news events of the year.\u00a0 We sigh and say, \u201cIsn\u2019t it a relief that 2022 is finally behind us?\u201d\u00a0 We simultaneously look ahead into the fog of the future, wondering what the next 12 months are going to bring.
\u00a0
So which of Janus\u2019 faces is more important \u2013 the one that looks back (which helps us learn, but also may burden us with regret) or the one that looks ahead (the direction that compels us to plan, but often afflicts us with worry)?\u00a0
\u00a0
The Bible\u2019s answer is straightforward:\u00a0 Neither.\u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
Neither the past nor the future is as important as a particular moment:\u00a0this moment.\u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
The most important moment of your life is not something that has already happened.\u00a0 And it is not something that is still to come.\u00a0 The greatest moment of your life is now<\/em> \u2013 because,\u00a0frankly, this is the only moment you\u2019ve got.\u00a0
\u00a0
This moment, it turns out, is the only one in which you can connect with God.
\u00a0
It\u2019s not that God is bound by time.\u00a0 The Bible suggests that God is eternally present to every <\/em>moment \u2013 past, present, and future \u2013 simultaneously.\u00a0
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But while our finite minds can reflect on the past and ponder the future, the only place where we can directly encounter God is the present. \u00a0
\u00a0
People may talk about grabbing hold of each passing moment: Carpe diem!\u00a0 <\/em>Seize the day.\u00a0 But none of us is actually equipped to hold on to a moment.\u00a0 We\u2019re meant to hold on to something else:\u00a0the God who at every moment is holding on to us.<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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The good news is that God is not somewhere else, in another place or time, waiting to be found.\u00a0 God is available right here and right now.
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Which means that this moment, and the next one, and the one after that, all the way through 2023, will genuinely count.\u00a0
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And they will all count forever<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0The month of January is named for the Roman god Janus.\u00a0\u00a0Janus was one weird-looking dude.\u00a0He was customarily portrayed with two faces.\u00a0 One face was looking toward the past, while the other was pointed toward the future.\u00a0 Janus thus became the Roman god of doors, transitions, time, passages, and change itself.\u00a0 He has… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[258],"class_list":["post-2251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251\/revisions\/2253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}