Now

On Monday, I was driving around town with the family and I had Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I had a dream" speech playing on the bluetooth.  It's a yearly tradition to listen to it and there are so many powerful moments from that historic day.  One line always sends electricity down my spine.  In the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. said these words, "We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism."

I love that idea of the "fierce urgency of now".  I almost feel like it is inappropriate to take text from such an incredibly important moment in our nation's history and apply or relate that language to my life, but I cannot help it.  In our lives, especially as we strive to be our best and build something excellent, there are two things that are stark realities that we need to face daily.  The first is that this moment, the now that is staring us in the face, is truly the most important tool that we have at our disposal.  The second is that there is a force, an adversarial force, that wants the hope, the inspiration, and the promise of that moment and the next "now" that comes after it to "cool off".

Sadly, I have been known to be guilty of joking about "Sunday feelings".  You know the ones.  It comes as a prompting, a subtle call to higher ground.  For me, it usually comes in the quiet times of a Sabbath morning as I take inventory of things.  In those moments, I know what I need to do.  It is clearly set before me.  In my mind's eye I can see the steps to take and, more importantly, I can sense the blessings that taking those steps would bring to myself and those around me.  Then something happens.  It's called Wednesday.  In the blink of an eye, I have mistakenly allowed those promptings to "cool off".  No longer are they clear.  No longer are they calling for me to take action.  They are not lost entirely, but they have faded in a sea of reason, of justification, of distraction, and of procrastination.  The call, and its powerful effect, seems a little less clear with the many different voices all calling and claiming my attention.  I can try to revive it and call it back but when I go to take action and strike, the iron has cooled off and the net effect is far from what it could have been had only the strike come earlier, while the iron was hot.

"Better late, than never" may be true, but it is not excellent.  "Now or never" is more like it.  These thoughts may not be huge at the moment but they are given to me with the intention to make me better and when I fail to seize the moment, the result is I lose.  And any others who that action might have blessed lose also.  Besides, I think to myself, that I am not qualified to determine what is "huge" and what is minimal.  What if I would have let the idea to propose to my wife "cool off"?  Or, go further back, and what if I never even kissed her that Sunday afternoon on the River Trail?  What if I don't accept the invitation to pray about Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, and The Book of Mormon?  It is a scary game to go back and ask what if, but it is the same game with the same results when I fail to move forward when prompted in the now.

I know that it is not monumental like what happened on that August day in 1963, but the "fierce urgency of now" that I face is indeed monumental, on an entirely different scale.  It is a reality that we all face.  May we grab it by the throat and when the door opens a crack, may we be found busting it in.  Act "that each tomorrow find us farther than today".  Say the words that we feel need to be said.  Express love and appreciation to those by your side.  Pray, read, ponder, work, obey, run, serve, travel, love, live.  When the path is marked before you take it and take it now.  Excellence awaits.