... and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.

Fear or hope of the next life does not - yet - motivate me much.

I believe with atypical assurance that through Jesus we are forgiven. And while I have some notions of divine justice, I am either insufficiently self-critical or sufficiently trusting in God's mercy that the prospect of justice does not propel me.

Neither does the prospect of an eternity with God transform my impatience with the present. I can imagine the spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual implications of perceiving this life as something akin to one hour during the summer of my seventh year. But such a heavenly vision, remains more visionary than real.

Martin Luther King spoke of the "fierce urgency of now." In much of Reinhold Niebuhr's work, we also sense this full engagement with the present moment. Niebuhr prays for serenity, but we often aim our prayers at that which eludes us.

Urgency and serenity are tough to combine. But to do so may be to achieve the wholeness of justice and mercy, prophecy and love, work and rest to which we are called.