Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Never Alone - Part 3

The "fourth conversation" offers some good tidbits. It says, Brother Lawrence "explained to me that coming before God ultimately must include giving up and turning our back once and for all on anything and everything that does not lead us to God?"

What are those things? What can those things be? They can habits. They can be attitudes. They can be a broken relationship with others, or with God. They can be possessions. It can be worry. It can be, as he says, anything. What gets in your way?

For me, it seems to be my obsession to control. I am a planner. As a teacher, I have my semester planned to the second far before the semester even begins. That, I believe, is a great attribute for that. The problem comes when I translate that into my walk with God. I want to know where God is going to have be at every step of my life for the next 50 years, or however long I am around. That hinders me from living in the now with God. Instead of basking in his presence here and now, I obsess about what is going to happen.

"Lord, help me to relax in your presence."

1 comment:

Roy said...

I feel your pain. And you are not the only pastor to struggle with control. You know that God is God and you are not. Maybe a little contemplative time will reinforce that for you. Our boundary lines are drawn in pleasant places. Trust is tough, especially when you carry battle scars.

But you know someone with deeper scars...