Feeling far from God?

I continue with Psalm 51, vv 12-13.

Cast me not away from your presence.

A friend once gave me a bumper sticker that said “Do you feel far from God? Well, who moved?” Since I don’t have a car of my own, I stuck it to the wall of my office. Not many benefitted from reading it, though, because it was in Hungarian. But some students used to ask me about it, and that ushered in nice teaching moment.

In the Psalm, David prays, Cast me not away from your presence,  and I’ve been thinking about that. God is in all things, and God’s love is within all of us, “in whom we live and move and have our being.” If that is the case, then could it really be possible that God would cast me out of his sight? If he were to do that, we would immediately turn to dust.

Rather, I would like to suggest that we cast Him from our presence. and by this I mean that we push him out of our consciousness and fail to consider that He is always with us, watching us and guiding us, and that when we move away He suffers just as Jesus suffered when the apostles fled when he was arrested.

But there are some times in our lives when we wish He would look somewhere else and not at us, especially when we are about to give into a temptation.

This is an important notion. So important, in fact, that Saint Benedict makes it the first step on the ladder of humility:

The first step of humility, then, is that a man keeps the fear of God always before his eyes (Psalm 36:2) and never forgets it. . . . . let him recall that he is always seen by God in heaven, that his actions everywhere are in God’s sight and are reported by angels at every hour. (Rule of St.Benedict, chapter 7, verses 1o and 12)

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

(And I thank the Lord for giving me this inspiration today, because I was pressed for time and only had half an hour to come up with something. I really felt like I was taking dictation rather than writing something on my own. But creativity is often like that at times, and this was one of them.)

God bless you.

A simple thought, while I'm away

I will be away for several days and will not have access to a computer. The next Reflection will be on October 9. Please keep me in your prayers.

Over these days, I’d like to leave you with one simple notion for your reflection. A simple notion, yet one which, if given proper attention, is a wide and wonderful as the entire universe.

That notion is this: God is with you, all the time.

That’s all, and it certainly is enough. In fact, if you give it its due, it is not only enough, but it is everything.

God is with us, all the time.

And yet, how easily we can forget it, or overlook it, or even turn our backs on it, especially if we are doing, thinking or acting in a way which we’d rather He not see. And yet, He’s there.

At all times and in all places, you are within his embrace and you are in touch with the author of everything—as Saint Paul says, in whom we live, and move, and have our being.

All it takes is one simply breath—in fact, less than that. All it takes is one simple inhalation, and during that time, you can re-establish a contact which has lost its freshness and its reality.

Take that breath. Often. When you inhale, think of God breathing the breath of life into you at the moment of your birth, a breath which will never leave you until the day you pass from this life to the other side.

Close your eyes. Smile just a bit. And inhale.

God is with you, all the time.

Have a nice week.