Finding God in the Present Moment

One of the truisms of our faith is that God is always found in the present moment. Despite our human tendency to dwell on the past or look to the future, we all know the present moment is the only time we can live in and influence. In a sense, it’s the only time that really matters and is a gift or “present” to use the cliché.

Life is full of opportunities to encounter God in the nitty gritty circumstances of each day but major transitions seem to bring this reality to a focus. “Just take it one day at a time,” we hear. This practically becomes a necessity in foreign missions and one story from my family’s time in Mexico illustrates how God’s grace is always abundantly available in the present moment.

Days before our planned trip back to the States from General Cepeda, Mexico to have our baby, something happened I won’t soon forget. Midway through an afternoon fiesta at the mission house to celebrate with friends before leaving, I jumped in the car with a friend to grab something I had forgotten at my house a few blocks away.

On the way, a drunk driver crossed the centerline in a pickup and ran into the front of our van! To make matters worse, he yelled something at me implying the accident was my fault, and then peeled off leaving me sitting in stunned silence. “Lord, what just happened?” I thought.

Thankfully my local friend was with me as he helped navigate calling the police and reporting the individual whom he happened to know—General Cepeda is a small town and everyone knows everyone else. My thoughts immediately went to figuring out what I needed to do to get the van fixed. We had just gotten it repaired the month before after an anonymous someone ran into it overnight while parked on the street. That whole process, including waiting on insurance and the Mexican repair shop, had taken nearly three months to finish. We were set to leave in nine days! “Lord, everything happens for a reason. What is your will in this?”

After driving to the police station and waiting around, the police finally returned saying they had indeed found “Poncho’s” pickup at his home (name changed for privacy), but the family stated he wasn’t there. Instead, they sent his sixteen-year-old son to deal with the problem. My Mexican insurance assessor also arrived several hours later, and I found myself standing in the dark around a circle of men that included him, the police, the sixteen-year-old son, and two of my close friends, all trying to agree about how to handle the situation, strange as that sounds and certainly was to me in the moment. It was clear the young man had no money, so my options were to pay the deductible again to get it repaired and either enter a complaint in the local court system to demand justice through a long drawn-out process or let the whole thing go. “Jesus, I trust in you.”

By the grace of God, I had this sense that He was especially present in the middle of this difficult situation. I was seeking how he wanted to use it for good; I was seeking to get over the inconvenience and cost to me and let my heart feel the brokenness of this man and the suffering of his family because of his addiction. In the end, I did let the boy go and insurance helped pay for repairs once we returned to the US.

But before we left General Cepeda I had a desire, a spirit-led conviction even, to seek out Poncho and share with him the Good News of God’s love and mercy—the good news that I had forgiven him and that his loving Father would forgive him too if only he would repent. That he could be liberated from enslavement to addiction and be the good man and father I knew he desired to be.

As only God can, He finally orchestrated the opportunity to visit with Poncho and his wife the day before we left. At first, he still had the same defensive and accusatory demeanor as our initial encounter. As it became more clear I was not there to judge him and demand justice or money, he visibly softened and began to open up about how he had tried to quit drinking many times before.

God gave me the grace to speak the tough but loving truth about his actions and how it was impacting his family—how much more serious the situation could have been if it had been a child in the street. I spoke about God’s deep and personal love for him, his wife, and his family, and that God could help him change if he only asked for His help.

In the end, I prayed for his freedom, healing, unity, and love in his family. And when we returned to General Cepeda five months later, I sought out Poncho who told me with a smile on his face that he had not had a drop of alcohol since that day.

All glory, honor, and praise be to God who is always with us in the present moment!