What does it mean to live in the present, to hear each other in the present, to be known in the present, to be present with one another?
A few weeks after I returned from a trip to Asia, the family gathered on a Saturday night, and my in-laws were in town from out of state. Grandpa John brought a lot of ice cream and the kids were enjoying sundaes.
I turned to my son Benjamin, almost seven years old now, and asked him, “How is it that we’re having sundaes but it’s only Saturday? Can you explain this?”
Without missing a beat, he said, “It’s already Sunday, in Thailand.”
When I think about the paradox that the Kingdom is coming and the Kingdom is now, I realize that this time-zone phenomenon is part of our everyday reality, and it’s a perfect example of living in the present while the future is already here.
In the broadest sense, this is the “present” we live in. Why not party now?