Roll Call: Who is present?

“At the very beginning God created the heavens and the earth as the place of his presence …. The Scriptures, from beginning to end, tell the marvelous story of God returning his presence to all creation. It was always God’s intent to be with his creation in the fullness of his presence.” David E. Fitch, Faithful Presence 

Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash

Being present in our own lives has become increasingly challenging; there is so much noise all around, so many opportunities and activities available to us, and so many distractions make it so difficult. Being aware and tuned into God’s presence around us can be doubly challenging. I suspect, though, that if we were not distracted to God and what he is up to around us, then we would be present in our lives as well. This last week the prayer I’ve been repeating several times a day is simply, “Help me to be present to your presence.”

Four Things I Forgot

“...do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price.” (1 Cor 6:19, 20a)

I was startled by the words of the Apostle Paul that I read one morning last week.  I’ve read them before, of course, but they startled me anyway. Too often, in my head, I have to be the one reminding God who I am, what my name is, what’s going on in my life and that HELLO... I'm over here!! I feel like I have to implore him not to forget about my details, and plead for a sign that my number will come up at some point. These feelings intensify in valleys where the shadows loom dark, and the voices of fear, worry, grief, and sorrow are deafening. But last week, the tables were deftly turned, and the question of who was remembering – or not – was pointed to me. There were four things from Paul’s words which I needed to remember.

A Thanksgiving meditation

I'll give thanks to the Lord always, and I'll say it again, I give thanks, because God's steadfast love  never ceases and his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness!

The heavens and the earth are filled with his glory; the handiwork of his fingers  is evident everywhere.

I see his glory when I crane my neck to look up into the heavens on a clear night; my mind cannot grasp the vastness of the skies, but he knows every single star by its name.

How powerful is this God?

And when I walk through the forest by day I revel in the blazing tapestries there. 

I think about the miracles in a single droplet of water;

and the complexities of the microscopic worlds within each cell;

and the billions of worlds within this tiny patch of the world, 

invisible to the naked eye and oblivious by-passer, but 

quietly, efficiently, steadfastly, 

season after season, 

carrying out their marvellous functions.

When it's Monday and you already need Friday...

“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.” Mark 9:2 

This morning I woke up with a lot of clamour in my head. The weekend was busy and noisy and I hadn’t had a chance to process all the stuff going on and get my myself in a good frame on mind to start out the new week. This morning I also woke up feeling burdened and heavy. There are lots of people I care about going through trying times and it had been awhile since I’d been able to unload and release them to God. This morning I woke up feeling disconnected, a bit disoriented, and feeling the need to find my way back to my path again. When I woke up this morning I was aching to get away by myself on a high mountain with Jesus somewhere so I could clear out the noise, pray for my people, and reorient myself and my heart to him again.