Practicing the Presence

When You said, “Seek My face,”My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek” (Psalms 27:8)

Books on spiritual formation urge us to practice the continuous presence of Christ, but I could never make it work for me. 

 

I tried to “set the LORD always before my face” (Psalm 16:8), to consciously think of his real presence throughout the day, but other thoughts kept intruding and I quickly forgot that he was near. I would go for hours and never once think of the Lord “before” me and I could think of no way to “set” him there.

 

And, more’s the pity, I’m no better off today.

 

But there are moments of sadness, or crisis, or serendipitous beauty and joy when I hear him say, “Seek my face.” And then I remember that he is here. Perhaps that’s all he expects of us in the blooming, buzzing confusion of our day. 

 

Two things at once, thou know'st I cannot think.

When busy with the work thou givest me,

I cannot consciously think then of thee.

Then why, when next thou lookest o'er the brink

Of my horizon, should my spirit shrink,

Reproached and fearful, nor to greet thee run?

Can I be two when I am only one?

 

—George MacDonald, Diary of and Old Soul

 

David Roper

2.14.21