Fastnacht, also called Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, isn’t for five days, but I’m already thinking about it. Americans are familiar with eating pancakes on this day, but Germans eat donuts called  Fastnacht. My grandmother’s relatives made them of yeast dough, fried in lard, and sprinkled with granulated sugar. They are best eaten freshly made. If you wait until the next day, they are dried out, and by day two you could pound nails with them. That will teach you to eat donuts during Lent.

Some things in life are like Fastnachs: they have to be enjoyed right away. In spiritual direction this is called living in the present moment. This is very difficult for me. I’m a planner and organizer, always thinking day or weeks or months ahead. It’s hard for me to be in the present moment, but it’s often in the present moment, the now, that people encounter God.

The Bible tells us many “now” stories. Abraham encountered God when he met three strangers one day. Jacob discovered God one night when he dreamt of a ladder with angels ascending and descending. Moses experienced God in a burning bush. The Gospel of John sadly tells how the Word of God was in the world “yet the world did not know him” (John 1:10). The world missed Christ in the present moment.

So here you are reading some words on a screen. Is Christ present now, in this very moment? Think again. “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.” Now. Here. Don’t miss Him.

Read Genesis 28:10-17 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne