Practicing the Presence

      It is very difficult for me to practice the presence of God. How can you talk to someone who isn't there? How can you listen to someone who is nowhere near you? How can you feel someone so far away from your grasp? And, more deeply, why do we even feel the urge to do this? Is it because we are social by nature? Because we were nurtured at a young age to be intimate with others from our parents? Let's look at these questions; they all have to do with someone. Is God just a someone? A corporeal being that you can hang out with, chat with, or shake hands with? God is more than just someone. He is the one, He is all one, He's even three in one.
      This concept, therefore, helps me understand why it is so hard for me to bask in the Lord's presence. I cannot feel Him, hear him, or see him, because he is not someone. And the reason I want to feel His presence is not because I was nurtured by my parents to be close and intimate with others. Oh, how backwards that is. The family is actually only a model of that intimacy and love that God imprinted on humans at creation! We are not taught how to love or long intimacy by our nurtured ways; we practice and yearn for those things because they are part of our very image of God! As I had said earlier, the greatest treachery that Satan has ever accomplished is making us believe he doesn't exist. I would like to retract that statement. There is a cunning plot far deeper and far more sinister which the latter hardly encompasses. I would argue that the greatest treachery that Satan has ever accomplished is making us believed that God is the one who does not exist. Two birds with one stone. If the Creator doesn't exit, the evil creation, therefore, does not and has free roam of the earth.
      Sadly, as I said, it is very hard for me to practice the presence of God. I have fallen into this trap that I see so clearly before me. Like an open pit lined with sharpened stakes and beasts, that I have knowingly fell into for fear of something greater above me. What rescues me from this pit? I can see God-like behavior in human beings all around me. Christians, and all humans, were made in God's image. They have great capabilities to show that to others, even I do. Somehow, I think that's one of the greatest ways to show that there is a God that does exist; and to show that his presence truly is all around us. Working on us, through us, and because of us. Others through me a rope in this hopeless pit, and constantly remind me of the one whom they model his love, compassion, and kindness. The one who actually became man, to show how it was done. Jesus Christ. You cannot deny or ignore the presence of Christ for any extended amount of time.