I found myself sitting in a state of near unconsciousness for much of my break earlier today. Zoned out and folded in a chair with one leg splayed out and my eyes fixated on the floor with a glazed-over stare. Occasionally thoughts would flicker through my mind like static on a cheap television, but I never stirred, I never moved until I had to.

It’s been harder and harder to come here. I just want to be done and move on.

The challenge is to LIVE (instead of merely exist) in the present NOW, rather than to always long for a future that will provide welcome relief from whatever oppressive and unwelcome existence we’re able to maintain now (in the hope, always in the hope of something better). But the Kingdom of God is at hand.

So the dialectic compels us forward; hope for the future indeed, but life to the fullest NOW as participants in the Kingdom.