THE SENSE OF GOD'S PRESENCE

REYNOLDS RAP
July 3, 2010

THE SENSE OF GOD’S PRESENCE

I have defined faith for myself as “living each day with a sense of God’s presence and in the knowledge of God’s love.” So I ask myself, what do I mean by a “sense of God’s presence?”
For some, it seems to be natural to all their living. They seem born with a sense of God’s presence and never question it.
Some seem to believe that God exists without having any sense of God’s presence. God is remote, not relevant to our lives, something undefined way off in the heavenly blue.
For some, this sense of God’s presence comes as a sudden thing, changing their lives seemingly in an instant, even to an astonishing degree. We speak of them as “born again.” They are like the shepherds in the Christmas story, the glory of God bursting suddenly upon them.
For others it is a struggle, lasting perhaps for months or years. They are more like the Magi, the “Wise Men,” those learned scholars who traveled long and far to realize the truth of the baby born in Bethlehem. Such people realize the truth of God-in-Christ and come to love God perhaps primarily with the mind, but they can be some of Christ’s most devoted disciples.
For many the sense of God’s presence comes quietly and gradually, perhaps developed over many years of spiritual practice. It is a matter of developing sensitivity to the reality of God, that reality greater than the ephemeral, material world around us. This is hard for some to realize, because the material world, the world of the senses, seems so apparent, so real. Yet we all, to some extent, have a sense of a greater reality permeating the material world. Some have so developed this sense that the reality of the spiritual seems more real to them than physical reality.
People have a variety of experiences of the reality of God. As long asa it has the marks of grace, we should not deny any persom’s experience of God.
Faith has been for me a somewhat intellectual thing, what made sense to me. When God seems gone and life without meaning, I still am convinced by my mind, my reason, that life has meaning and that God is good. This seems to me to be a more solid foundation than feelings or emotions which so easily come and go.
In the beginning, it was not so much a “leap of faith” as a matter of sticking my toe in and then carefully wading in, step by step. I was seeking God, a sense of God’s presence, seeking earnestly, devotedly.
Finally in my mind I came to the conclusion that either life was meaningless and all was an illusion, or else, at the center of our existence there beat the heart of a loving God, the kind Jesus called “Abba.” Gradually there came the realization that God was there all the time. It was not a matter of my search for God as it was God waiting on, reaching out to me.
The “sense of God’s presence” became very real. Oh, that vivid sense of the reality of God passed within a year, but still it comes, often in quiet and sometimes strange places. Sometimes it comes quite naturally in a church service, especially at Christmas time. Sometimes it comes through nature – a sunset, the call of a lonely loon on a lake at night. Often it comes with music. I remember one transcendent moment -- listening to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra playing Bach’s “Air in G.”
One of my special places for prayer is on the verandah on the front of our house. I sit there when all is still, or when the wind moves the leaves. I sit there in the darkness, or even in a winter storm, the rain lashing at the trees. I sit so close to the storm but in the shelter the veranda provides.
I say we can “sense” that reality, but in fact it cannot be said to be knowledge of the senses. It is more a pre-sense of God’s presence – something before or apart from the knowledge of the senses. Sometimes it does come through the senses, not only seeing the sunset, the beautiful colours, but also seeing through the sunset; not only a matter of hearing the music but also hearing something in the music, through the music. It is the realization that the sky is not only full of stars, but is full of glory, the glory of God.
Then in recent years, there is a new dimension to my faith. I have had had several apnoea-like incidents, waking at night n a panic feeling that I can’t get my breath. These have caused me in a new way to face my own mortality and to question my faith. Is God in fact there?
So I find myself changing my definition of faith: “Living each day seeking a sense of God’s presence.”
Believe me, I have had my moments. In the end, I come back to my belief that only God makes sense. Without God I can make no sense of life. Life has too much meaning, so much joy and love and beauty.
Thanks be to God!

LAST CAST

Noah's Ark
Everything I need to know, I learned from Noah's Ark.
ONE: Don't miss the boat.
TWO: Remember that we are all in the same boat!
THREE: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
FOUR: Stay fit. When you're 60 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.
FIVE: Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.
SIX: Build your future on high ground.
SEVEN: For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
EIGHT: Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
NINE: When you're stressed, float awhile.
TEN: Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
ELEVEN: No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.