My name is Andrea Elise and I’m from Amarillo, Texas. I just finished reading How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now (2022) by James K. A. Stevens.
When I first heard about a book with quotes from Reinhold Niebuhr (for example, the unbridled need for faith, hope, love and forgiveness), Søren Kierkegaard and many other philosophers and theologians while, at the same time, with references to The Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile, The Byrds and Fleet Foxes, I knew I had to read the 174-page non-fiction book.
James Stevens’ book did not disappoint. Smith is a well-known Christian writer whose appeal extends well beyond the boundaries of his own faith.
Smith encourages us to visit – in our own minds – a spiritual timekeeping, one that includes changes in all of our lives and one that focuses on the time spent with the spiritual.
Smith also reminds us that it is important to live deeply within time. We can do this by prayerful living and by seeing ourselves “at our now from a nowhen.”
I had no idea that “nowhen” is a well-known term that leads us to think outside of time. Smith tells us that it is important to develop memento tempori, which means “at the important moment.” This development can result in synchronizing our heart-clocks with the tempo all things spiritual.
I recently had the good fortune of attending a talk by Native American storyteller, Eldrina Douma. One of the questions Douma finds most important to ask is WHEN did my life really start, and what is my gift of the day?
Like Smith, Douma stresses the importance of the “when.” She also invites us to consider what we will leave for the person or people who come after us. We are, once again, measuring time and its usefulness in all we do.
Douma made a thought-provoking statement when she noted that Native American runners do not run merely to stay in shape or try to flee potential captors. Instead, these individuals run for prayer.
Think about an activity that may come naturally to you, and then turn it around and make it a prayer. What a wonderful gift that would be, both to yourself and to others.
A sentence in James Smith’s book stood out above many for me. On page 146, he writes: “… life is like living in escrow; the Creator has taken possession, but we’re waiting for closing.”
Live in time; live in hope; live in love. All of the rest will follow.
This is Andrea Elise for HPPR Radio Readers’ Book Club.
Andrea Elise was born in Sopron, Hungary and immigrated to the United States with her parents in 1956. She grew up in Amarillo, and attended Amarillo College before transferring to Duke University, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature. She spent two years in the Peace Corps in South Korea, then obtained a Master’s degree in Counseling from West Texas A&M University.
Her interests include writing essays and poetry (she published a book of poems and haikus in 2023), partner dancing (if anyone is interested in East Coast swing or jitterbug dancing, please get in touch), playing mandolin, hiking, working out and reading. She lives in Amarillo with her very understanding husband, their two high-maintenance cats and several foster cats who somehow made her husband’s tool shed a resting place complete with room service.
