A few years back I read a book called The Practice of the Presence of God which discussed the practical subject of closeness to God. In it were thoughts compiled from a 17th century monastarian by the name of Brother Lawrence.

An excerpt from a Wikipedia entry on brother Lawrence says,

‘common business,’ no matter how mundane or routine, was the medium of God’s love. The issue was not the sacredness or worldly status of the task but the motivation behind it. “Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God.”

The question on my mind has been, how do I come to this place?

First, what does it mean to “practice the presence?” Simply put, it means to live in God’s presence. But, God is everywhere so what in the world does this mean? To me it means to live as if I am in His presence. With my mind I know he is everywhere, that He is always with me – but in my life that is not how I live. If for just a moment I take my eyes off all the do’s and don’ts I would put on myself if I lived as if He were beside me and instead looked at the adoration and wonder that He is beside ME, I would be living in His presence. In other words, I am in His presence all the time but my soul does not acknowledge that presence. It’s as if only what I can see if real. I have had moments (and longer) where I felt I was in the very presence of God but I don’t live there. ‘Practicing the presence’ is about living in this place.

So how do I get there?

1. Solitude – I need to quiet my mind.
   This IS NOT a time to read my Bible, to pray or anything else. This is a time of complete quiet. If it takes an hour, so be it. If it takes longer, great. This cannot be rushed, it cannot be given a time limit.

   All this stuff rattling in my head is noise. I need to put it all aside.

   • All those projects and problems at work, not enough income, not enough vacation, not enough going into 401(k), not being the worker I should be, not enough due respect to my employer.
   • All those honey do’s
   • All the small group activities I’m not doing or doing too much of
   • All those thoughts about what does it all means; where is my life going?
   • All those thoughts about what does God want me to do, how can I do it, why is it so hard to hear Him?

   Jesus taught us a little about this. It was His habit to get away before the day came at Him. Search the scriptures and see how many times Jesus found a place of solitude. What daily habits do you think He had?

2. Conversation – I need to converse with God as a person not an object.
   • If I have not quieted my mind in # 1, conversation is going to be strained at best.
   • If I talked to my spouse as I talk to God how would that relationship look?
   • Yes, He is my creator, my maker, my sustainer but He also desires a personal relationship with me. Somehow there is a balance between not treating God like our buddy and not treating God like some impersonal ruler of the universe.
3. Meditation – Psalm 19 says, “These are the words in my mouth, these are what I chew on and pray…” – The Message (MSG) The Word of God is something to put great thought into, His words are my life!
4. Enjoy – Now this fascinated me. If I do not enjoy God then none of this makes sense. Spurgeon’s catechism says that the “chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” That says it all.

If I am to enjoy Him from now until forever without end, I better start meeting Him, talking to Him and Pondering His words because I’ve got a long ways to go.

I am completely without words when someone tells me that God doesn’t speak. Many have said to me that their prayers go unanswered as if falling on deaf or interested ears – maybe there are no ears at all.

The funny thing is that I can relate. For years I never saw God as personal, so I never much expected Him to speak. Many times I have prayed and received silence in return. Of course I see right there that my definition of prayer in that last sentence is limited to asking God for something. Prayer is much more than that.

I have been at critical junctures in my life, even since the inception of this blog and there have been long periods of silence. But then at other times it’s answer after answer, sometimes before I am even done asking. This has been one of those weeks. Again. This year has, for the most part, been one of those years. Sure, maybe this or that could be coincidence but when it comes to one thing after another after another – it would be irrational to believe it were chance.

Yesterday God gave me a wild pear. I had been praying for a few weeks that I would spy a wild fruit tree that I knew existed in the area. No sighting. Yesterday was a day spent in a lot of intercessory prayer for several friends and family. Prayers were answered. Then as if to say “thanks for asking” I looked up and there was my fruit. I did not expect it. I don’t believe I had even prayed for it this week. It was not mere chance. It was divine. How do I know? I know that I know.

I know that when I have asked of God fervently, laying my whole being at His feet he has ALWAYS given more more than I asked for. He desires to give me more and it’s almost as if He’s waiting for the opportunity to do just that.

He knew the perfect time to hand me a pear. It would have been good a few weeks ago when I first started asking. But yesterday it was a blessing.

My choice good or blessing? Hmmmm… I’ll take the blessing every time.

I am a firm believer in the philosophy that how I react to the world shapes my world. I can either standby and let things happen to me and feel powerless or I can standby and let things happen to me and be powerful. At this point a few of my readers my advocate “not letting things happen to me.” and taking control. I agree with what you are thinking in principle.

Every sane, rational human being has to admit that there are simple some things out of our control no matter how hard we may try. A plane could fall out of the sky onto the building I am at this very moment. Since I have no idea when such an event would happen (so I could at least move my presence elsewhere to prevent my demise), and very obviously have no power to interrupt gravity or reinforce the protective structure I am in ‘at cause’ to what will happen.

Those events in which I think I have control are elusive at best. Do I really have control, or was it fortuitous that I saw the punch coming and ducked? If I were to manipulate events to produce the desired outcome can I really ensure that every variable that could change the outcome were addressed? Sure, I could do a pretty good job and have a high probability of success but as I stated before I have no way of knowing the future and guaranteeing the result.

So, although I can strongly influence many things in my world, I am always having things come at me and make my best attempt to maintain the illusion I give myself that I am in charge.

The great thing is that I really don’t need to be in charge to know my best interest is considered. I was recently directed to a blog that says more about hope and faith and trust than I could ever put into words. In a series of 2 articles this blog entry by John Lynch sums it all up in a nutshell. Next time I feel overwhelmed, like I’m losing control it would be good for me to remember that I AM! There is only one in control.

Take a few minutes and read:
– King of My World?
– King of My World? Cont…

With all the efforts to engineer a worldwide panic you’d think the climate would assist those jumping up and down.

USA Today today reports:

July’s climate: Chilly USA
Mother Nature has thrown [global warming proponets] yet another curve: July 2009 was officially the coldest July on record in six U.S. states, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Specifically, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Not one of the coldest, mind you, but the absolute, rock-bottom, chilliest on record. Records go back to 1895.

Meanwhile, four others – Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri and Kentucky — had their 2nd-coldest July ever recorded.

Now I could stop there but to be fair the article does state that other areas of the globe recorded record highs. I hate when partial data is used to promote a point so I had to put that in.

Now that I’ve stirred the pot, I’ll ask the question I always ask with this global warming data. Are we in a natural climate cycle or is mankind really creating long term impact?

I enjoyed my 23 days in Alaska and sure wish I could be there longer. Many thanks to my dad for giving me a lot with a view!

Only a miniscule percentage of the 6½ billion on this earth have had the pleasure of staying at our property in Alaska. The rest of you do not know what you are missing out on.

There’s OJT, On the Job Training. Now there’s IST, In the Spare (time) Training. That’s when you squeeze something more into your already busy life, schedule and workday to educate yourself.

As if I did not have enough to do in those little cracks of time – now I’ve added a big task into tiny timesharing slivers. I’m not sure if I can absorb it, but I’ll try.