2 Samuel 16:19 · World English Bible
2 Samuel 16:19 Meaning Again
Again, whom should I serve? Shouldn’t I serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father’s presence, so I will be in your presence.
What does 2 Samuel 16:19 mean?
Everything turns on presence. Whom should I serve, and in whose presence shall I stand?
From the Ego v. Being reading below.
2 Samuel 16:19 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Ego v. Being
EGO & BEING
Ego v. Being
Everything turns on presence. Whom should I serve, and in whose presence shall I stand? Beneath the loyalties and the politics, a deeper truth waits. The only place you can ever serve, the only place you can ever stand, is here, in the presence of this moment.
You cannot serve the past, which is only memory, nor the future, which is only a thought. When you give yourself fully to what is in front of you now, you serve Life itself. To be in someone's presence, truly, is to be present. Attention brought completely to the Now is the highest service you have to give.
Ego v. Being lensGo deeper in the app
Ego v. Being lens
Live 2 Samuel 16:19 today
- Pick one small task today, washing a dish, walking to the car, and give it your whole attention instead of listening to a podcast over the top of it. Let that one thing be the only thing.
- The next time someone talks to you, put the phone face down and out of your hand. Being in their presence means actually being there, not half there with one eye on a screen.
- When a meeting or a hard conversation starts pulling you into what you should have said last week or what you will have to handle tomorrow, come back to the person in front of you and the sentence they are saying right now.
Who is in front of me today that I have been meeting only halfway?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen · Yunmen
When you are walking, just walk. When you are sitting, just sit. Above all, do not wobble, because the only life you have is the one happening in this act.
Bhagavad Gita 2
Action offered completely to the present, without clutching at what it will bring you later, is the purest form of service.
Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
Confine yourself to the present. The past is spent and the future is not yours yet, so the only ground you can stand on or act from is this moment.
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