Earlier this week, I started to walk out of my office at home and Kathy happened to be walking toward the office. Our home is not that big but there is one blind spot…right at the point at which we met. I was so intent on getting from my office to the coffee pot, that I was totally unaware of anything and anyone else, let alone someone walking in the hallway. Needless to say, when we met, I literally almost dropped my coffee cup, I gasped, jumped backed, verbalized something unintelligible and took a few seconds to regain my composure. I had just read this Gospel pericope and I immediately thought….omg…I wonder if that is what the Gospel means…will that be how it happens? Will it be? In some ways that is what the Gospel seems to portray…people will die of fright, heaven will be shaken, sea will be roaring… “Be on guard” Luke encourages us…. And I thought….wow what if that was God that I met at the corner in the hallway instead of my bride? What if the end comes, as Scripture says, like a thief in the night, in the blink of an eye… What I learned from that brief, frightening, encounter, was that being in the present moment is a lot harder than it may seem. And yet, that seems to be what the Gospel continually invites us to be…in this moment, with these feelings, these thoughts, these experiences, virtually or in-person, what if with the next blink of our eyes, we met God… Wow… With that insight, I certainly can appreciate this season of Advent even more. It’s a chance….a chance to prepare…a chance to set things right…a chance to change our presence in the world…from robotic to intentional. Waiting is hard work…because it causes us to stop and to think and to be in these moments. Waiting causes us to push the pause button on the remotes of our lives and says…stop…who are you? What are you doing? How are you being? I hope and pray this Advent season is an opportunity for us all to hit pause, take a few breaths and revel in this moment. I close with a wonderful insight shared with me by a dear friend, The difference between regret and success, is three deep breaths and 90 seconds…take them!