Where Are You Living?
Have you ever noticed how often your mind drifts away from what’s right in front of you?
Some of us are stuck in the past, regretting what we’ve done or romanticizing what once was. Others live in the future, worrying about what might go wrong or daydreaming about what could go right. But very few of us live in the present. And according to The Screwtape Letters, that’s exactly what the enemy wants.
In Letter 15, Screwtape, the senior demon, tells his apprentice Wormwood that their job is to keep humans focused on the past or the future, anything but the here and now. Why? Because the present is dangerous. It’s the only place where God gives grace. It’s the only place where we can truly obey. It’s the only moment where time intersects with eternity.
The Enemy’s Goal: Eternity Now
Lewis’s insight is stunning: “The present is the point at which time touches eternity.”
God, who exists outside of time, invites us to meet him in time, specifically in the present. He wants us to:
- Obey his voice today,
- Bear today’s burdens,
- Receive today’s grace,
- Give thanks for today’s blessings.
The devil doesn’t care whether you are scared of tomorrow or optimistic about it, as long as you’re not grounded in today. If he can keep your head in the clouds of possibility, he’s robbed you of the only place you can actually act, right now.
The Future is Fiction
Screwtape says that the future is the least like eternity because it doesn’t exist. It’s imaginary. It inflames both fear and ambition. But it is unreal, and therefore a distraction. Virtues, on the other hand, belong to the present, gratitude for what God has done and love for those around you now.
That doesn’t mean we’re forbidden to think about the future. God invites us to plan, but only in obedience to today’s duties. As Screwtape puts it, “The duty of planning tomorrow’s work is today’s duty.” You can prepare for tomorrow, but you’re only accountable for today.
What Living in the Present Really Means
Let’s be clear: living in the present doesn’t mean naively assuming everything will work out. That’s not trust, it’s denial. Some people feel peace about the future only because they’ve convinced themselves it will be painless. But that’s just another trap. When reality hits they fall apart.
Instead, the Christian learns to live in the present with eyes wide open. They know suffering may come, but they also know that grace will meet them when it does. So they pray now. They love now. They obey now.
That kind of life frustrates hell.
Giving God the Now
Screwtape ends with a damning contrast between what God wants and what the demons want. God wants someone who can:
“Wash his mind of the whole subject [of the future], commit the issue to heaven, and return at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him.”
But the enemy wants a race of people “perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow’s end”, so caught up in visions of utopia or doom that they sacrifice today on the altar of tomorrow.
Eternal Rays in This Moment
So what about you?
Are you spending your energy on things you can’t control and don’t yet exist? Or are you embracing the only moment where you are truly alive, the one that’s lit up with eternal rays?
Stop. Breathe. Pray.
Now is holy ground.
Now is where grace lives.
Now is where you meet God.