The practice of the presence of God

This originally was written for our January 2010 newsletter

There is a magnet on the metal file cabinet in my church office that I had never really paid attention to. It was there when I was appointed to Bethel.
I noticed it last week when I was sitting at my computer, looking around the office, out the window and as I was trying to slow down a bit to catch my breath. The last few weeks have been going at “warp speed” (if you are a Star Trek fan you know what that means.)

The magnet reads,
“Every Day, Find a Way, Practice the Presence of God”

This magnet reminded me of a classic devotional book bearing the same name, “The Practice of the Presence of God” which was compiled from conversations and letters, after Brother Lawrence died.

"My most usual method is this simple attention, an affectionate regard for God to whom I find myself often attached with greater sweetness and delight than that of an infant at the mother's breast. To choose an expression, I would call this state the bosom of God, for the inexpressible sweetness which I taste and experience there." This is how "Brother Lawrence" describes his constant practice of speaking with and reflecting upon God amidst the mundane tasks of life. Nicholas Herman (c. 1605-1691) was born in Lorraine, France, and served as a cook and shoe repairer at a Carmelite monastery. He was only a lay member of the order, and walked with a limp from injuries incurred as a soldier, yet his private thoughts provide a wellspring of devotional insight and refreshment.”

“His method was to cultivate at all times a consciousness of the presence of God. According to Brother Lawrence, wherever we might find ourselves, whatever the task at hand, we should perform our duties with a consciousness of God’s loving presence. With such an awareness all our activities were hallowed; we would thus find ourselves in a state of continuous prayer or conversation with God… Brother Lawrence made no distinction between great works and small. As he liked to observe, God, ‘regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”

I don’t usually make New Year resolution because by February, they usually peter out but my wish for all of us would be that we would cultivate “the practice of the presence of God”, that we would be ever more mindful that God is with us always. In order to do this, I believe we need to hear/feel God. For more introverted persons like me, this means I need to slow down (Elijah heard God in the still small voice - a gentle whisper - not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire – 1 Kings 19:11-13); for the more extroverted among us, this may mean something else but I suspect we all need to slow down daily. I believe that without this awareness we will not follow God’s guidance well because we won’t know what that guidance is.
May we be ever more open to God’s guidance this year, not only as individuals but as a whole church.