time machine
[my year in review station 03]
[ mirror + binoculars + splitter + headphones + shuffle ]
Listen
Cloud Cult ‘Time Machine Invention’ on The Seeker (2016)
This is the story of my time machine invention.
It’s not perfect, cuz I’m not that bright.
We walk our days with the best of intentions,
But when I screw things up,
I wanna go back and make ’em right.
Yeah, I’m a believer in mind over matter.
And I’ve made my mind up to travel in time.
Restart the days, and I’ll do it so much better.
I waste so much time a worryin’ I forgot to live my life.
I’m not going anywhere
’til I’m back to where it was we were before.
I don’t need anything
except always needing just a little more.
I run in circles so I can kick me in the pants.
There’s a reason God is doG backwards:
we must chase the tail.
The truth is my invention refuses to go backwards.
A tiny glitch I’m sure to figure out.
But I can ride on the moment
slowly time traveling forwards
So the next destination is always right now.
(All aboard!)
I’ve finally solved the puzzle
of my time machine invention.
You see, in the future, this present is the past, so
If you give this moment your fullest attention
We’ll just keep going forwards
with no need for going back.
“Just keep going forwards with no need for going back.”
Maybe an ironic statement for a MY YEAR IN REVIEW. Right? The goal of our review is, well, looking back. However, it may not be the looking back that we often find ourselves doing. If you are anything like me, the tendency to look backwards and regret; look backwards and replay again and again your own actions or words — analyzing them to death. However, this is not the kind of “review” that’s meant for our stations.
Present living by being informed by our past and hopeful about our future is our goal. Eyes open to the moment, while also being well aware of the path that has brought you to the moment. This is the purpose of MYIR.
Write
Take a moment to consider anything that you would want this time machine invention for in the past year.
Has there been an action that still haunts you with regret?
Are their words you spoke that still hang in your mind — leaving you in a pool of worry?
Is there a failing on your part? Is there a lack of forgiveness?
Is there anything that you wish you could undo?
And just like in Back To The Future — as they set the navigation system to 1955 what event would you set your time machine back to in the past year (or further if you need to go back beyond the year).
Write down just one of the events you would like to REDO.
How would you act differently? What would you say? What would you choose? Let yourself imagine, for only a moment, your REDO of the moment.
Prayerful Reflection
“Just keep going forwards with no need for going back.”
As the song says, there is no actual time machine — right?
Hold the mirror.
We can look back. But we cannot return to the moment to change what happened.
Hold up the binoculars.
We can escape the moment by looking far ahead, but we cannot transport ourselves beyond this moment.
As a prayerful reflection on this time business, consider the words of Pavel Somov in his book, Present Perfect: A Mindfulness Approach to Letting Go of Perfectionism and the Need for Control:
If perfection is a state beyond improvement, then isn’t every moment, by definition, perfect? After all, any given “now,” any given moment of reality is what it is in the sense that it cannot be anything other than what it is. Take this moment, right now: this moment is already here, and, as such, as theoretically imperfect as it may be, it is — at present — beyond any modification . . .
The process view (of perfection) allows you to see your entire life as an unfolding work in progress, as an ever-changing blossoming of perfection. In a process view of perfection, failure is not an option, in the sense that you are always succeeding since you are always doing your best.
What would it do for you to let go of the regret and shame? What would it do for you to know that it’s this moment, the now, that you can shape. What would it mean for you to know that God meets us here — in this moment — to experience it just as it is. The perfect moment of our redemption. The perfect moment of the fruit of our action. The perfect moment of our awareness.
They are all now.
Which will be in our past.
And which was our future.
So imitate God. Follow Him like adored children, and live in love as the Anointed One loved you — so much that He gave Himself as a fragrant sacrifice, pleasing God. — Ephesians 5:1–2
