Monday, February 9, 2015

Living in the Presence While Living in the Present

Christian mindfulness is the intersection of living in the presence of God and living in the present.  If that sounds simple, it's not.  It's a lifetime of spiritual practice.

While I've been striving for a while to practice Christian mindfulness, I'm sure I'm still walking the first steps of a journey that will take the rest of my life.  And I may not be that far alone when I hit the end.  But travel on, I must.  It is, in many ways, like the pearl of great price.  Once you've seen it, you are willing to sell everything to obtain it. 

It begins every moment in the now.  That may be the only what humans can find the living God.  The past is memory, and memory is often flawed.  The future is an imagining.  We can't find God there because it's not real.  So we look in the present moment.

Is God present with us there?  Yes.  Whether we know it or not.  And most of the time we don't.  So how can we sense God?  That's the question that takes a lifetime to answer.  Spiritual masters say we cultivate the presence of God (or more truthfully ... come to see the presence of God) by focusing on mind on him through continual prayer and aligning our will with His.  Also doing that will. 

I have a tendency to read a lot about this because it's easier to read it than to do it.  But I am moving forward slowly, very slowly.  

The spiritual masters also report that this type of grace isn't cheap.  If we want to experience daily, deep intimacy with God, sensing his practice and doing his work, we must wake every morning and carry our crosses.  The appropriate response to suffering is the fast track on long and difficult road to Christian mindfulness. And those who find it are few.  Let's try anyway.  


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