Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Practice of the Presence of God

It's the start of a new semester, which means my schedule is far more packed than it should be. As always, it's a strange feeling coming off of a break when I could spend as much time with God as I wanted. Even when I "worked" it was doing ministry stuff. I constantly felt like I was in the presence of God. When life gets busy that becomes much more challenging as so many important things fight for my attention. Learning to worship at all times and in all things is hard to do. Over the break I read a little book by Brother Lawrence called The Practice of the Presence of God. God calls us to do things that are not as much spiritual as they are practical, like sitting in class and doing homework, or going to the office every morning, or whatever our current occupation might be. For Lawrence it was peeling potatoes. Still, God is omnipresent and if we open our eyes we can see evidences of His presence even in the most mundane tasks and transform them into something beautiful, into worship. The spiritual and the practical can, and must if we are to find a true sense of joy and purpose in all things, coexist. So here is a quote from the book that I have committed myself to praying every morning before I walk out the door. There is nothing better than to set our hearts continually on our Beloved.

"O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy presence; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections."

His,
Stephanie

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