“My soul longs, indeed faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.” ~ Psalm 84:2
Have you ever been so preoccupied with life that you sometimes overlook the surprising and unexpected ways that God shows up as you go about the routine activities of everyday life?
I have to confess that this happens to me a lot. Given my penchant for finishing assigned tasks on time, personal experience has taught me that sometimes I can become so fixated on checking items off my never-ending “to-do” lists that I end up missing out on what my friend Julie calls “God winks,” the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) signs of God’s abiding presence in our lives, in our congregations, and our world.
The psalmist’s heartfelt joy of being and living in God’s presence is a tonic for many of us who may feel worn down, burned out, or simply stuck in a rut. Life is complicated and sometimes we may focus only on the challenges of our present circumstances instead of opening ourselves up to the many and varied ways that God IS at work in our lives.
Could the answer to our “dis-ease” be as simple as following the example of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection? Brother Lawrence was a seventeenth-century French Carmelite friar whose conversations and letters, The Practice of the Presence of God, speak to the deep-seated longing so many of us have to be in relationship with God. But instead of allowing himself to be distracted by the daily tasks he was assigned, Brother Lawrence focused on cultivating an awareness of God’s presence in his life even amid the drudgery of cooking in the monastery kitchen, washing dishes, or making sandals. For Brother Lawrence, the discipline all began with the realization that “at any moment, in the midst of any occupation, under any circumstances” one may encounter God’s presence in deep and meaningful ways.
What, I wonder, might happen if we began to look for, experience, and celebrate God’s presence in our lives? Although I cannot answer that question for you, I suspect that the spiritual practice developed by Brother Lawrence long ago may hold the key to the peace, joy, and happiness that so many of us long for.
Walking to Golgotha 