The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Part V: Doing what Is given, receiving what Is sent

Agony in the Garden by El Greco, c. 1590

There is a quiet misunderstanding that many of us carry in the spiritual life.

We think holiness is found in doing something extraordinary—something dramatic, something unmistakably “from God.” But more often than not, God comes to us in very simple ways:

In what we are asked to do…and in what we are asked to receive.

But we must be clear from the beginning:

The present moment is not sacred on its own.It becomes sacred because Jesus Christ is present in it.

We do not simply accept life as it comes.We walk through it with Him—the One who said,“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

It is through Jesus that we know the Father.It is with Jesus that we live each moment.And it is often in the most ordinary parts of life that we encounter Him most deeply.

Two Movements of the Soul

The spiritual life has a quiet rhythm, one that unfolds in every day:

• Active faithfulness — doing what is placed before us

• Passive surrender — receiving what comes to us

  
  

These are not opposing paths.They are two ways of walking with Christ in the same moment.

We may prefer one over the other.

Some of us are “doers.” We find strength in action, in responsibility, in accomplishing what is set before us. Others are learning to endure, to wait, to trust when life does not unfold as we hoped.

But following Jesus calls us into both.

Doing What Is Given

There is always something in front of us:

• A responsibility

• A conversation

• A task

• A quiet act of obedience

  
  

Most of it feels small. Ordinary. Easy to overlook.

And yet, this is where Christ meets us.

To do what is given is not just to complete a task.It is to follow Jesus in that task—to act in faith, to serve in love, to be present where He has placed us.

Not in some imagined future.Not in some greater calling yet to come.

But here.

Now.

To do what is given—faithfully and without seeking recognition—is already to walk with Him.

Receiving What Is Sent in the Present Moment

But every moment also carries something else:

The part we did not choose.

• The interruption

• The delay

• The disappointment

• The suffering

  
  

This is where the deeper work of faith begins.

It is one thing to follow Christ in what we willingly do.It is another to trust Him in what we would never choose.

And yet, this is the very path He walked.

In the garden, Jesus prayed,“Not my will, but Yours be done.”

He did not avoid suffering. He entrusted Himself to the Father within it.

So when we receive what is sent to us—not with bitterness, but with trust—we are not alone. We are walking in the same pattern of life that Christ Himself lived.

One Life, Not Two

We often divide our lives without realizing it:

• The parts we choose

• The parts we endure

But in Christ, there is no such division.

There is only one life:

The life we are living with Him, right now.

Every moment holds both:

• Something to be done

• Something to be received

• 
  

And in both, Christ is present.

Leading.Shaping.Inviting us to trust.

For Us Today

We often ask:“What is God’s will for my life?”

But perhaps a better question is this:

“What is Jesus inviting me to do—and to trust—right now?”

• Do what is in front of you—with Christ

• Receive what comes to you—with Christ

• Trust that through Him, the Father is at work in both

  
  

We do not come to God in general.

We come through Jesus.

And it is often in the quiet, unnoticed moments of life that we find ourselves closest to Him.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, You are the way to the Father and the companion of every moment.

Teach me to follow You in what I am given to do, and to trust Youin what I am given to receive.

Help me not to divide my life into what I welcome and what I resist, but to live all of it with You.

In the ordinary and the unexpected, draw me closer to Yourself.

Amen.

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HE LEADETH ME

He leadeth me, O blessèd thought!

O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!

Whate’er I do, where’er I be

Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.

Refrain

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me;

His faithful follower I would be,

For by His hand He leadeth me.

Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,

Sometimes, where Eden’s bowers bloom,

By waters still, over troubled sea,

Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.

Refrain

Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,

Nor ever murmur nor repine;

Content, whatever lot I see,

Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.

Refrain

And when my task on earth is done,

When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won,

E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,

Since God through Jordan leadeth me.

Refrain

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Joseph H. Gilmore, 1862.