A short time ago a little book arrived in the mail unsolicited. I was reading several other things at the time and set it aside but when I began to read its pages I was impacted by the truth of Matthew Kelly’s words. He reminds us that it is in the small moments of life that we have the greatest opportunities and are often impacted the most. 

If you have a store of memories you can reflect on them, you will likely discover that despite all the effort and work spent on major goals and events in your life and the many people on your memory’s pages it is usually the little moments in time you recall. Despite that we don’t live life that way much of the time. Matthew Kelly reminds us of how we can impact those around us in the simple moments we race through without  a lot of thought.

We may think we want or need to find a more meaningful life so we can live life to the fullest and somehow make a difference for having been here. 

Holy Moments begins with a prologue of a fascinating tale about monks in a monastery that I won’t detail here telling of the transformation of the monastery monks. It wasn’t what you expect. When a woman approaches the Abbot to ask him what has brought about the transformation and how it happened since now it was a place full of great joy, he answered, “We started living as if the Messiah were among us.”  

The woman pondered his story and then asked the Abbot what advice he had for her. His answer: “Treat every person you ever meet like the second coming of Jesus in disguise.”

None of us steward every moment or even every day well but how much different they might be if we took those words as ones to live by. None of us can thrive or know joy if we live a meaningless life but finding meaning doesn’t need to be a grand goal of one kind or another. 

Kelly shares a quote by the South African author Laurens van der Post: “There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning. There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness. But of far greater comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has meaning for you, it is irrelevant whether you’re happy or unhappy. You are content.”

Our choices of the moments we are given each day can bring meaning in the smallest and simplest thing if we consider the words of the Abbot to the woman. After all, though we can chart our spiritual lives over time, the actual choice to believe in God happened in a moment and that changed everything. If we get disconnected from Him through the daily grind or duties that are ours, life can become meaningless and we can risk feeling like gerbils running on a treadmill.

“There is a moment at the end of each day, when we lay our heads on our pillows.  Our bodies are tired, our minds relax, and our egos let go. It is a solitary moment. If we listen carefully in that moment, we will discover where we stand. Where we stand with God, where we stand with those we love, and where we stand with our truest self. That moment never lies. It reveals meaning or meaninglessness of our lives.”

Matthew Kelly in Holy Moments

With a background for the theme of this little 116-page book, the author describes what makes our choices into “holy” choices: “A Holy Moment is a single moment in which you open yourself to God. You make yourself available to Him. You set aside personal preference and self-interest, and for one moment you do what you prayerfully believe God is calling you to do.”

Doing so will guide us to master the moment of decision that makes all the difference. 

We are constantly making choices throughout the day and none of us are born being great at doing it. We learn (often the hard way) how to become better at it.

“Decision making is a powerful force in our lives. Our decisions quite literally shape our lives. We make the future with our choices.” 

Matthew Kelly in Holy Moments

Holy Moments takes the reader on a thought filled and challenging look at these themes and how we can develop “spiritual intelligence” that can shape our life by giving us a new trajectory and deeper meaning.

This is not a short book to dash through in one sitting but rather one to read in moments of time so we reflect and consider the author’s words. (I read it in small bites as part of my daily devotional time.) If you do, it can transform the next moment you make a decision.