Living for two days, today and that day, brings the kind of simplified focus to our earthly pilgrimage I believe that Jesus Christ has in mind for us. When I was a young believer, I said to the Lord one day in prayer, “Lord, help me to relate everything in life to you.” However, I felt he answered me with a surprising corrective response. It seemed as though he whispered immediately into my heart, “No, that’s too philosophical and detached of a way to live. I want you to relate ‘with me’ to everything in life.” It is possible to “pray without ceasing” as listening for the Lord and speaking with him about all the events of our lives becomes intrinsically woven into the fabric of our experiences. We are enabled to concentrate on many other things and give such important matters our excellent efforts and profound attention while, simultaneously, we are carrying on a “subterranean”, inaudible, sometimes even sub-conscious, conversation with Divine.
That experience has always stuck with me and I have sought to consistently engage in this interactive friendship with the Trinity in real time since that time. I certainly haven’t done it perfectly or even near perfectly, but I like to use the word “substantially” in describing it. Honestly, my “near perfectionism” theology got me into a lot of trouble with the Lord (and my wife!) in the early years of my faith life. The people I know and have read about who are most friendly with Jesus don’t seem to feel any pressure to calculate or refer to how close they really are to him. They speak more often about how much more they have yet to learn. There is a blessed “self-unconsciousness” that comes with genuine spiritual maturity. Moses didn’t know that his face was shining from being in the very presence of God on the holy mountain! I have also found that these folks tend to have a great sense of humor too. They are able to take God and his kingdom very seriously without taking themselves so seriously—like so many intensely hyper-religious souls.
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