Just a Closer Walk with Thee
Read time: 6.5 minutes
Most of us spend our whole lives looking and searching for a place to belong, a place we call home, and a love that will not fail. For the most part we do not find what we seek. Even when we find God the longing for a better home continues to haunt us. The problem for most is that we come to know God in so-called mountain top experiences but do not learn how to abide with Him in the valley. We are told by some that we cannot stay in this close relationship with God but must come down from the mountain and slug it out in the valley (of tears). While it is true life has its ups and downs the idea that we must give up the communion that our mountain top experience offers is not Biblical. Jesus never lost his intimate connection with his Father or the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul never lost his fire or intimate experiential knowledge of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Joshua never lost his dedication to his mission. The apostles never lost their faith or zeal for Christ even unto death. Brother Lawrence, in the little book “the Practice of the presence of God”, gives us a simple way to walk with God all the days of our life in the good times and the bad.
In the book we find out that Brother Lawrence, who was a soldier, joined a monastery and decided to give all his thoughts to God as he worked in the kitchen as chief cook and bottle washer (a job which he really did not like). He struggled for 10 years constantly failing to include God in all his thoughts. Then he seemed to receive grace to accomplish what was his heart’s desire. It was not long before others around him noticed that he was abiding in grace and started to come to him for spiritual direction and prayers. He would give no thought to his own salvation or his spiritual progress as this was God’s work and not his. He would not worry about his own sin or the foolishness in the world, but simply confess his sin and prayed quickly for the world and then turn his thoughts back to God.
Soon he had a sense of God’s abiding presence with him all the time. He said that it did not matter if he was in church, or in the kitchen working, or out in the world procuring food for the monastery, God’s presence was always with him. Brother Lawrence lived into his eighties. He worked hard and did not have a lot of time to devote to prayer except for the communal prayer in the monastery. As he grew older he did not have the strength to work in the kitchen so he became a shoe maker and continued to serve. At the end of his life he told those who were close to him that God was so present to him that he almost did not need faith any longer.
Saint Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. Saint John tells us that God is love, and those who abide in love, abide in God and God in him. Jesus said that he came to serve and not be served. Brother Lawrence found a way to live these words simply by including God in all his thoughts and allowing God’s thoughts, His word to us, to guide him. He said that every night he would go to sleep in perfect peace and wake up as if he had spent the night in the arms of God, without any worry or anxiety.
Now of course every human is unique and called by God to walk his or her own path. And, it would be not be reasonable to think that we could all be exactly like Brother Lawrence. However, I can’t help but think that the way of faith is for everyone. And while we might not be able to live like Brother Lawrence exactly, we can walk in grace every day as the Lord leads us and enjoy his abiding presence as we give him our thoughts and allow his words and our service to shape us.
Isaiah 60:1-6 says … Arise for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Behold, darkness has covered the land, and thick darkness the people. But the Lord has risen upon you, and the glory of the Lord is seen upon you. See the people gather together, and come to the brightness of your light … and many will return to you …
My prayer is that the church would be seen in such light, that is all of us in the church, so that many who have wandered off would see and return. It seems to me that Brother Lawrence is providing a witness to all of us that such light is attainable.