Presence. Always, Presence

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. Yeah, I know, that may be understating things just a tad.
On top of the cancer concern I am also battling a sinus thing that has pretty much kicked my butt.

I’m not asking for sympathy or anything.
It’s simply part of walking in this skin suit. We get sick. Big deal; so what?

I do want to share an observation, though.

This morning as I was taking time to sit in the silence and reflect, I realized that I have not taken time to be “present” with God. My normal practice of waking in the early hours of the morning and focusing my heart and mind on Yahweh’s Presence had been interrupted. Hacking; coughing; unable to breathe. These things can be a distraction.

Yahweh, however, had still been Present with me.

Yeah, I know all of the so-called spiritual sayings and platitudes that folks like to riff on. “God is an ever present help in time of trouble” is a favorite among the uber-spiritual.
We say that to folks who seem to struggle with their problems and their relationship with God.
“Buck up, Buddie! God’s still with you! Could you pass the mustard, please?”

How many of us have taken the time to sit with that idea?
Have any of us really contemplated what it actually means when we read or hear, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you”?

To be clear, I don’t think for a nanosecond that this Presence of God resembles anything like the Cosmic Killjoy who is just watching, waiting for us to screw up.
“Busted! I know what you were thinking! Ten demerits and a trip to Hell for you!”

Nor, do I think that Yahweh is sitting behind a Judge’s bench waiting expectantly to pass judgement on everything that we have done or thought.

Unfortunately, that’s what so many of our Sisters and Brothers have been taught. God uses the same technology as Santa Claus. “I see you when you’re sleeping. I know when you’re awake. I know if you’ve been bad or good…”

In this picture, God is a Cosmic Voyeur just waiting for us to screw up so that we can get what we so richly deserve.
Punishment.

No, No,No!!!!

I can’t say No enough times to that image of Yahweh.

Sitting this morning with my pen in hand, jotting thoughts into a book that no one will ever read, (at least not while I’m still breathing), I had an over-powering sense of Yahweh’s Presence.
As I confessed that I had neglected my own presence with God, I was assured that God was, and always will be, Present.

I was not condemned nor convicted of any wrongdoing.
Yahweh did not chew me out for my absence.
I wasn’t sent to the corner for a time out.

No.

Yahweh lovingly assured me that nothing, no illness or other distraction, would or COULD distract God’s Presence from me.

Sit with that thought for awhile.
Please.