There are times when I feel spiritual, and there are times
when I don’t feel much like a Christian at all.
There are times when prayer seems as easy as breathing and times when I
just can’t focus on prayer. I know of
many who spend most of their spiritual energy trying to stay in those former
places of warm spiritual feelings. They
are to be treasured when they happen, but we can’t stay there. There are other seasons and times of faith
that we must live; and those times when we must pray through the numb feelings
inside are just as powerful as the times of consolation. God is continually at work in us even when we
are distracted by the hum-drum of everyday life. We do not worship a God of escapism. There is a real now-ness to our faith. There is a present-ness that embraces the
joyful and the tedium of everyday
living. This is the lesson of Brother
Lawrence, who found God in the washing of dishes; a job that he was not very
thrilled to do at first. So we must
learn to find God in the washing of dishes, in the taking out of the trash, in
the paying of bills or in the filing of reports. Even when our mind feels like a tornado of
distraction and worry, Jesus is there to say, “Peace, be still.”
