Finding the Presence of God
The most holy and necessary practice in our spiritual life is the presence of God. — Brother Lawrence
We might refer to this age-old mystic mantra in our time as God-consciousness, awakened life, spiritual awareness, mindfulness, or the like.
As I write these few lines, I can hear birds just beyond my back door doing their thing. Singing symphonies of love, loss, longing, joy for life, and maybe a few war cries over territory and food.
Beyond them are the gentle murmurs of my neighbours greeting the new day with some, or all, of the of the same sentiments, and more.
To hear with the heart is to hear the living God. God is not missing, but intimately present in the here and now. And what we misfit mystics gently hear with our hearts; we shall also surely see with eyes of our sacred souls.
There is an oft quoted modern parable by David Foster Wallace:
There are two young fish swimming along and they meet a wise old fish swimming the other way, who nods and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” The two young fish swim on, then one of them looks at the other and says, “What the hell is water?”
The crucial practice in our mystic spiritual life is to become increasing aware of the water in which we live and move and have our being. The divine presence is never limited to grand, spectacular events, but is found in everyday moments and the seemingly insignificant details of life. God’s presence is universal and permeates all.
If, like me, you meditate on the odd biblical narrative or two, you might, like me, discover that there is a grand narrative that ties the whole kit and caboodle together. From plot forming mythmaking mystics, to creative prophetic prose and poetry, the glue that binds the bible stories together is that God is radically inclusive love and is universally present in the now.
I knew an old mystic, and no slouch theologian, who after decades of intense study and pondering the bible concluded that its central message is: “God is the energy of love.”
God is not missing. The whole trajectory of the biblical stories from start to finish is about how God is with us. God is in our midst. God dwells with us and among us through the creative universally available energy of love. This is the breath of life, the cleansing water in which we, and all created things, swim.
Meister Eckhart, another great mystic from a bygone era, said: “I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God.”
The living God is indeed present even in the least of things, and when we find God’s presence in the least of things, we will surely find that God is the living water in which we, even the least of things, swim.
And just beyond my backdoor a symphony of birdsong…
— Cormac Stagg, author of The Quest for a Humble Heart