Changing of the Tenses

Grammar textbooks, even the most elementary ones, define tense as time.   A cursory perusal of verbs forms identifies activity or movement as tenses: present, past, and future as well as present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect.  Have I thrown enough sleep dust in your eyes? Wake up for a minute, please!  That's not all about verb tenses but it suffices in this instance.

Call me crazy, weird, or unhinged (won't be the first time!), but I loved learning to conjugate, to break verbs into their functions.  Conjugation refers to linking an event with the time it occurs.  Just a little bit more, please.  Three personal pronouns "tell" who initiates an action or on whom the action occurs ( depicting present past, or future tenses, among others).

To illustrate: the verb "dance" when used with the "I" pronoun, becomes I dance, translated into the time, or tense when the action occurred.    In like manner, using personal pronouns you, he, she, it or we, you (plural), and they, become he, she, or it dances and we, you (singular and plural), and they dance, respectively.

I did not intend to preface a discussion of tense or time in such a longwinded manner! Sooo, that's why  "Tenses" remains the subject of this blog.  Here's what happened.  Sitting in a dental chair last Saturday revealed something about me, to me, I didn't know.  I'd heard (and heartedly agreed) with the axiom, "Change your thoughts; change your world." 

My daddy the deacon, would intone, "As a person thinks in his heart, so is he!" Alright.  I agreed, whether I truly understood the nexus between heart and behavior. (After all, my daddy said it!). Especially when darkness prevailed.  Later, however, the light bulb of consciousness blinked and stayed on.  Its vibrant energy shone in my mind and heart; I was ecstatic!  

Sitting in that dental chair, I'd subconsciously begun reciting Philippians 4:19, And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."   As I began to repeat it, this time I unwittingly said,  "And my God supplies every need..."  CLICK! I had changed tense from the future to the present! WHAT?

The wattage of the aforementioned light bulb increased and shone as brightly as a klieg light!  Epiphany spoke.  I had gone from an indefinite future to a real-time present, meaning now, and denoting receipt of a gift, whatever the need was.  Lessons from Eckart Tolle's bestseller, The Power of Now, vied for space in my mind. The verb "supplies," means right now!  It bespeaks present-time power!

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, my perception transformed.  "He's an on-time God, oh yes He is," we sang when I was a kid (past tense, which was a while back).  Or, "He may not come when you want Him, but He'll be there right on time!" also declared a fact.   The humongous difference?  As (Grand)Mama would say, "I didn't know diddly-squat about faith back then.  I certainly wasn't aware that our lyrics,  declared "by faith," insured our dreams, desires, and even desperation.

Yet, it was (and is) the embrace of "by faith" in my prayers, thoughts, and pleadings that have made all the difference.  By faith, I have learned to personalize pronoun usage in Scripture: Now,  "I ask and I  receive; I seek and I find; I knock and the door opens" (Matthew 7:7).  The verse serves as a coda to my conscious change in verb tenses.  Now, I pray in the present time, in the now, all the time.  Now Tolle's books make all the sense in the world.

The Holy Bible remains my primary source and resource of Truth, wisdom, and understanding.  I am forever grateful and indebted to the Holy Spirit, my Rabboni, my Jehovah Shalom, my Friend.

"What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Ev'rything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Ev'rything to God in prayer!"