Thought for the Week – 16th October 2022

Living in the Moment

At the October Evening Service in Billingsley, the talk was given by Jane Peeler, a Reader from the Bridgnorth group of parishes and also an Anna Chaplain. Anna Chaplains minister to the spiritual needs of the elderly; a lot of their work is with individuals with various memory problems. Sometimes dementia leaves the sufferer in a very dark place but this is not always the case. Jane told of one of the people she visits who has severe memory loss, but when asked when he was most happy, after a long pause, he replied “right now”.

We often hear the phrase “living in the moment”. It can be trite; an attempt to distract from deep seated worries which may be very real and which will not go away. These do have to be faced. But in other contexts it takes on a different meaning. For Jane, the lesson was to give her friend her undivided attention at that instant, to share in his happiness as much as she could. Jesus also addressed this when he spoke about how we cannot add anything to our lives by worrying about the future. His point was that ultimately we can only trust to God; however difficult it is in the moment, however unreal it may seem at the time, the love of God is the only certainty that we have. Anna Chaplains are sustained by their trust in the unbreakable love of God and through this, they reach out to those they visit to help them find contentment and live fully in the moment.
Rev David Poyner