The Moment Before God

Finding God in the Present

I have to admit to feeling somewhat broody and anxious about world conditions and the cultural climate—ideological swirl, the Israel-Gaza war (my Jewish epigenetics at play!), artificial intelligence, irreversible environmental damage, etc. to name a few. The truth is that I am inclined to be future oriented and regularly experience bouts of future shock where I have to admit that I am feeling a bit ‘end-timesy’ about our world. No kidding, I even have a name for this…eschatosthesia! One of the challenges to someone who feels the future is to focus on being faithful to the present moment and leave the future to God. So, I’ve been digging into my journal and found another gem by Martin Buber on topic, along with a related reflection on the piece. Here it is ————>

Human destiny is neither a result of chance nor blind fate. From a Biblical perspective, historic destiny is the hidden connection woven into the present moment. When we understand our origin and our purpose, life does not drift aimlessly; rather, we are moved by a meaning beyond our own creation, a meaning meant to be lived out rather than conceptualized.

Humanity has lost sight of both its origin and its purpose because it refuses to recognize the pivotal present moment. Creation and redemption are meaningful only if revelation is experienced in the present. Modern man resists Scripture because he cannot bear the weight of revelation. To bear revelation is to confront each moment filled with possible decisions and to take responsibility for those moments. The resistance to Scripture today stems from a refusal to accept responsibility. People believe they are taking great risks, yet they diligently avoid the true risk: the responsibility that comes with it.

~ Martin Buber, Israel and the World, 95

The notion of destiny, as presented in the biblical worldview, defies both the randomness of chance and the rigidity of fatalism. It offers a profound sense of order that is not immediately apparent but is instead bound up in the fabric of the present moment. This is the core of what we might call “historic destiny,” a purpose and trajectory that transcends human understanding and yet pulls us forward in ways we could never fully articulate. To live in awareness of both our origin and our goal is to embrace the mystery of this unfolding meaning—a meaning that cannot be invented, only received and embodied.

But the modern condition is marked by a profound forgetfulness, a willful blindness to the sacred “midpoint”—the present moment where decisions are made and responsibility is embraced. We’ve lost sight of our origin, our creation, and our goal, redemption, because we’ve cut ourselves off from revelation, which is the connective tissue between the two. Without the present encounter with the divine, creation and redemption lose their transformative power; they become abstract concepts, detached from lived experience.

The resistance to Scripture, then, is not merely intellectual or cultural—it is deeply existential. To truly engage with revelation is to be thrust into the immediacy of every moment, to recognize that each second carries the weight of possible decisions, that we are accountable for how we respond. This is an uncomfortable place to be because it demands something of us. It asks that we not just exist but live responsibly, recognizing the sacredness of our choices.

In modern times, we pride ourselves on taking risks—on stepping into the unknown, on challenging conventions. Yet, in many ways, these ventures are surface-level distractions. The real venture, the deeper risk, is the one we are so eager to avoid: the acceptance of responsibility. It’s easier to resist the call of Scripture, easier to distract ourselves with grand gestures or intellectual posturing, than it is to engage with the profound responsibility that revelation places on us.

In this avoidance, we miss out on the very thing that could ground us, that could give us the sense of meaning we so desperately seek. We evade the present, and in doing so, we evade both our origin and our goal. True destiny, then, is not something to be feared, but something to be lived with courage—a call to embrace the present moment in all its weight and wonder.

(PS I do use AI for editorial purposes)