Showing posts with label God's Presence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's Presence. Show all posts
Giving Up The Burden of Absence
This past weekend I laid down the burden of not feeling God's presence. Out at the Conservative Mennonite Conference in Berlin, Ohio I hit up the prayer room. There was a wooden cross that had place to hang burdens. My burden was the absence of God himself. Funny I never thought of laying that burden at the cross before. I picked up the Martin Guitar with fresh strings and played and sang. I think God was hiding behind the couch. I couldn't see him anywhere but I had that unnerving feeling that he was hearing me and that it made him smile.
Practicing Practicing the Presence of God.
I have an utterly amazing job. I work on a dairy farm. I spread hay, I scoop poop, I spread poop, I milk cows, I herd cows around. It's great pay, and I get a home made lunch.
In the style of Brother Lawrence I have tried to make my place of employment a sacred space. As I spread bedding hay I just commune with my Father, talking here and there, offering praise, praying for those I knew. In the area where the cows are milked -I can't remember the terminology for it. I just started work I'm not exactly a professional dairy farmer- the radio was on and I sang songs to my Father. The moment actually seemed more worshipful and sacred there in that milking parlor -that's the word- than it many times does during a church service. Those stone walls and milking tubes became my sanctuary.
Connection with God has always been on the forefront of my mind; but it often seems that 'getting through' each moment with God was the goal; as opposed to spending each moment with Him. What happened in the milk parlor yesterday was an immensly small understanding in my heart that each moment was not something to be 'getting through' with God. Each moment is within itself a moment to abide in the presence of God. Each speck of time, no matter what the circumstances, is a speck of time that is sacred and beautiful; a moment whose purpose is to commune with the Father.
"We ought to give ourselves up to God with regard both to things temporal and spiritual and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will. Whether God led us by suffering or by consolation all would be equal to a soul truly resigned."
-Brother Lawrence
In the style of Brother Lawrence I have tried to make my place of employment a sacred space. As I spread bedding hay I just commune with my Father, talking here and there, offering praise, praying for those I knew. In the area where the cows are milked -I can't remember the terminology for it. I just started work I'm not exactly a professional dairy farmer- the radio was on and I sang songs to my Father. The moment actually seemed more worshipful and sacred there in that milking parlor -that's the word- than it many times does during a church service. Those stone walls and milking tubes became my sanctuary.
Connection with God has always been on the forefront of my mind; but it often seems that 'getting through' each moment with God was the goal; as opposed to spending each moment with Him. What happened in the milk parlor yesterday was an immensly small understanding in my heart that each moment was not something to be 'getting through' with God. Each moment is within itself a moment to abide in the presence of God. Each speck of time, no matter what the circumstances, is a speck of time that is sacred and beautiful; a moment whose purpose is to commune with the Father.
"We ought to give ourselves up to God with regard both to things temporal and spiritual and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will. Whether God led us by suffering or by consolation all would be equal to a soul truly resigned."
-Brother Lawrence
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