Missing God

Our world is saturated with the Holy. It is full of God's presence. God's presence are the very waters we swim in each day, and yet every day and every week I can close each one having completely missed Him. When we realize the truth of Ephesians 4:6 that is over all, through all, and in all, there becomes a saddening reality on our part. We realize God is present everywhere, and we still miss Him entirely in the course of a day or a week.

We need what Richard Foster calls prayer of examen of consciousness. We need to recognize what Erwin McManus calls divine moments in need of seizing. We need with Brother Lawrence to practice the presence of God.

Each day is full of God's presence, and my mind and heart need to be attentive to His presence. I need to 'prayerfully reflect on the thoughts, feelings, and actions of my days to see how God has been at work among me and how I respond' to those moments.

Each day is my opportunity to be present where I am. God invites me to see and hear and respond to what is around me, and through it all, to discern the footprints of God.

What may God be doing in and through my kids today? What may God be inviting me into through the neighbor, the barista, the homeless man I come across today? What may God be teaching me or forming in me through the loss of a job, the loss of a love one, a confusing circumstance, or a relational altercation?

These are all divine moments when heaven invades earth. More specifically, these are all moments Heaven invades my world today.

I only pray and ask that I have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Why we work hard

"but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, SO THAT he will have something to share with one who has need." -Ephesians 4:28

Why do we work hard? Why should we work hard and save our money?

We work hard and we are not lazy or stealing SO THAT we have money and resources to help those in need. We also work hard to steward and save our money for these same purposes. It is very oppositional to our American Dream and normal American perspective of money and gain.

Here in scripture we are told that we work hard FOR the opportunity to share what we get. This, for me, requires a check to my motivation and my worry.

Am I motivated to work hard that I may earn enough to be able to share and serve others OR do I work hard that I may earn enough to be able to say I've earned enough?

What worries me most when it comes to my work and my gain? Why am I worried in the times when funds are low? Am I worried because it means I will be unable to then give to those in need and share what I have. OR  Am I really worried because once more it is going to mean I cannot financially sustain the lifestyle and pleasures I have built for myself?

If I worried more about the former than the latter, somehow I think funds would be low on a much rarer occasion.