Spiritual Solutions

One of the most beautiful thoughts from the writings of the mystic medieval thinkers is the thought of the seventeenth century Carmelite monk, Brother Lawrence, “The Practice of the Presence of God.” But what does it really mean? And where do you practice the presence?

The practice of the presence of God is the consciousness that you live and move and have your being in God. It is taking the time to be still, to turn from the realization of inadequacy, of confusion, of sickness, to turn from the thought of being alone in a heartless universe, to get away from the idea that God is “out there” somewhere; to instead get the realization of your oneness, to know that you exist in God – I am in God, God is in me. Then, there is no separation.

True prayer is the realization that God manifests in you and in me as a presence, and the word “presence” means present here and now. God is always with you!

Practice that presence by turning from the outer sense of separation to an inner realization of oneness, of wholeness. Feel that you are alive and alert in the presence, that you are guided and directed in the presence and that you are free and whole and fulfilled in the presence.

Practicing the presence means to let go of all tendencies to look up or to reach out for something. Just be still and know your oneness. Let yourself feel the activity of this all enveloping presence, this universal essence which we call God that is in you, expressing through you and within you, and which has no other desire for you except to heal and guide you and fulfill you. Just be still and rest in this consciousness. Then you will practice the presence.

The practice of the presence of God is the consciousness that wherever you are, God is; whatever you do, you are in the presence of God. And it is a matter of turning instantly from an experience of conflict, from a momentary sense of insecurity, to a realization of oneness, of wholeness.

Practicing the presence is a beautiful idea, but it is probably like the study of music or any other artistic endeavor – it requires a great deal of practice in terms of the discipline and diligence of experiences of prayer and meditation. To paraphrase Emerson, he says that when you have broken with the God of tradition and destroyed the God of your intellect, then God fires you with His presence. In other words, you must let go of the God of your intellect and of the God of tradition.

Take time in the quiet of your home, perhaps in the early morning hours when you have awakened or the last thing before you go to sleep at night to just get still and feel the sense that you are in the presence, that you are surrounded and enfolded in this consciousness of love and of life and of substance and of intelligence which is God. It is this consciousness that can give one the real sense of preparation for life. It will give you the realization that you can go forth in life without any real concerns or any anxieties, truly confident, truly prepared in every way for all that may come.

Determine that you will no longer practice the absence of God; get the sense that every time you deal with God “out there,” you are practicing the absence of God. Certainly, every time you say as so many people do, “How could God allow this to happen? How could God allow this good person to suffer so?” you are practicing the absence of God. You are thinking of God as something “out there.”

It is important to get the understanding of God as a presence and an activity. God doesn’t will sickness or death or confusion. God is, and as the scriptures say, “Behold, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” There is a constant support of love and light and guidance forever within you that functions just as constantly as the force of gravity if we allow it, if we work with it, if we practice it.

So take the time right now. Just be still, close your eyes and practice the presence. You don’t have to tell God that you are doing this or what you need – the Father knows what things you have need of even before you ask. God is, and God is an activity in which you live and move and have your being. It is life supporting, loving, healing, harmonizing, ever with and around you, ever expressing as you. Practice it. Be still and know it. The go forth this day knowing that you are in the presence of God, that there is no way that you can be separated and, therefore, you know that this will be a good day.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Listening to God is an important part of our spiritual practice, as is also the practice of really listening to others even beyond what they may be saying in words so that we can hear what they are not saying. Thinking about this led me to share with you today’s message:

A dear friend of ours, Charlie Finn, whom Kathryn and I knew in Roanoke, Virginia, when we had our ministry there, wrote a poem in 1966 just after he started teaching a boys’ high school class. He shared the poem with some of the students, close friends and family members. He never put his name on it, and, as the years went by, the poem kept coming back to him from other directions with the word “Anonymous” on it or “Author Unknown.” From 1968 to the present time it has been published in dozens of publications, it’s been recorded on record albums, and it’s been used in seminars and workshops. In fact, Charlie told of a time when he was attending a seminar on Humanistic Psychology and the first thing the person presenting did was to read his poem.

Charlie remarked how awesome it was to him that this poem had reached so many people, and it struck him not only with pride but with awe that he had been able to reach within himself and find some meaning that also touched the hearts and minds of other people. Here’s the poem:

 Please Hear What I’m Not Saying

                Don’t be fooled by me.

               Don’t be fooled by the face I wear

               for I wear a mask, a thousand masks,

               masks that I’m afraid to take off,

               and none of them is me.

               Pretending is an art that’s second nature with me,

               but don’t be fooled,

               for God’s sake don’t be fooled.

               I give you the impression that I’m secure,

               that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well

                    as without,

               that confidence is my name and coolness my game,

               that the water’s calm and I’m in command

               and that I need no one,

               but don’t believe me.

               My surface may seem smooth but my surface is my mask,

               ever-varying and ever-concealing.

               Beneath lies no complacence.

               Beneath lies confusion, and fear, and aloneness.

               But I hide this.  I don’t want anybody to know it.

               I panic at the thought of my weakness exposed.

               That’s why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,

               a nonchalant sophisticated facade,

               to help me pretend,

               to shield me from the glance that knows.

               But such a glance is precisely my salvation, my only hope,

               and I know it.

               That is, if it’s followed by acceptance,

               if it’s followed by love.

               It’s the only thing that can liberate me from myself,

               from my own self-built prison walls,

               from the barriers I so painstakingly erect.

               It’s the only thing that will assure me

               of what I can’t assure myself,

               that I’m really worth something.

               But I don’t tell you this.  I don’t dare to, I’m afraid to.

               I’m afraid your glance will not be followed by acceptance,

               will not be followed by love.

               I’m afraid you’ll think less of me,

               that you’ll laugh, and your laugh would kill me.

               I’m afraid that deep-down I’m nothing

               and that you will see this and reject me.

               So I play my game, my desperate pretending game,

               with a facade of assurance without

               and a trembling child within.

               So begins the glittering but empty parade of masks,

               and my life becomes a front.

                I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk.

               I tell you everything that’s really nothing,

               and nothing of what’s everything,

               of what’s crying within me.

               So when I’m going through my routine

               do not be fooled by what I’m saying.

               Please listen carefully and try to hear what I’m not saying,

               what I’d like to be able to say,

               what for survival I need to say,

               but what I can’t say.

               I don’t like hiding.

               I don’t like playing superficial phony games.

               I want to stop playing them.

               I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me

               but you’ve got to help me.

               You’ve got to hold out your hand

               even when that’s the last thing I seem to want.

               Only you can wipe away from my eyes

               the blank stare of the breathing dead.

               Only you can call me into aliveness.

               Each time you’re kind, and gentle, and encouraging,

               each time you try to understand because you really care,

               my heart begins to grow wings–

               very small wings,

               very feeble wings,

               but wings!

               With your power to touch me into feeling

               you can breathe life into me.

               I want you to know that.

               I want you to know how important you are to me,

               how you can be a creator–an honest-to-God creator–

               of the person that is me

               if you choose to.

               You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,

               you alone can remove my mask,

               you alone can release me from my shadow-world of panic,

               from my lonely prison,

               if you choose to.

               Please choose to.

               Do not pass me by.

               It will not be easy for you.

               A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.

               The nearer you approach to me

               the blinder I may strike back.

               It’s irrational, but despite what the books say about man

               often I am irrational.

               I fight against the very thing I cry out for.

               But I am told that love is stronger than strong walls

               and in this lies my hope.

               Please try to beat down those walls

               with firm hands but with gentle hands

               for a child is very sensitive.

               Who am I, you may wonder?

               I am someone you know very well.

               For I am every man you meet

               and I am every woman you meet.

                                                                     Charles C. Finn

                                                                     September 1966

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

—————————————————–             

 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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