I want to suggest that these words are a key to answering the question, where is God in our world and how do I see and hear from him?
What Paul commends in Philippians 4. 8 is an affirmative approach to life; an attitude of mind by which we go through life looking for those things which are excellent and praiseworthy. Jesus said, seek and you will find (Matthew 7. 7). Paul is working with a similar premise; he is saying look and you will see. In other words, if you look for excellent and praiseworthy things as you go through life, you will see them.
Why should this be so? This view (which has been called ‘The Way of Affirmation’) is based on God’s creation and Jesus’ incarnation. The Way of Affirmation holds that ‘God is manifest in many things and can be known through these things,’ as in Psalm 19. 1: ' The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork ' or, in Paul’s words from Romans 1. 20, ‘ever since the creation of the world [God’s] eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.’ For this reason, David Adam is able to write, ‘our God is in all the world and waits to be discovered there – or, to be more exact, the world is in Him, all is in the heart of God.’
More than this, our humanity has been embraced by God through the incarnation. In Jesus, God becomes human; affirming our humanity and taking it into the Godhead. God affirmed his creation as good (Genesis 1) and he affirmed his incarnate Son, saying of him, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’ (Luke 3. 22). The world reflects God and God has actively embraced humanity therefore we have a basis on which we can build an affirmative approach to life; looking for those things that are excellent and praiseworthy and expecting to find them.
What difference does this make? I want to talk about its impact in three areas of life; prayer, actions and conversation.
Simone Weil said that, ‘absolute unmixed attention is prayer.’ Similarly, Simon Small has written that, ‘To pay profound attention to reality is prayer, because to enter the depths of this moment is to encounter God ... Contemplative prayer is the art of paying attention to what is’ (Simon Small, 'From the Bottom of the Pond', O Books, 2007).
Jean Pierre de Caussade called this, 'The Sacrament of the Present Moment,' which ‘refers to God's coming to us at each moment, as really and truly as God is present in the Sacraments of the Church ... In other words, in each moment of our lives God is present under the signs of what is ordinary and mundane ... God is equally present in the small things of life as in the great. God is there in life's daily routine, in dull moments, in dry prayers ... There is nothing that happens to us in which God cannot be found. What we need are the eyes of faith to discern God as God comes at each moment - truly present, truly living, truly attentive to the needs of each one’ (Elizabeth Ruth Obbard, Life in God's NOW, New City, 2012).
Brother Lawrence was a member of the Carmelite Order in France during the 17th Century. He spent most of his life in the kitchen or mending shoes, but became a great spiritual guide. He saw God in the mundane tasks he carried out in the priory kitchen. Daily life for him was an ongoing conversation with God. He wrote: 'we need only to recognize God intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment.'
As a result, 'The time of action does not differ from that of prayer. I possess God as peacefully in the bustle of my kitchen, where sometimes several people are asking me for different things at the same time, as I do upon my knees before the Holy Sacrament.'
'It is not needful to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God. When it is finished, if I have nothing to do, I prostrate myself on the ground and worship my God, who gave me the grace to make it, after which I arise happier than a king. When I can do nothing else, it is enough to have picked up a straw for the love of God.'
'We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.'
This sort of spirituality - the sense of the presence of God in all things, and the possibility of honouring God in every action is also found in our hymn books. We sing:
‘Teach me, my God and King,
In all things thee to see,
And what I do in any thing,
To do it as for thee:’
George Herbert’s hymn, originally a poem called ‘The Elixir,’ ends with these words:
‘A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
Makes that and the action fine.
This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold:
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.’
This affirmative approach to life always impacts on our conversation. In James 3 we read that ‘no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing’ (James 3. 8 – 10).
As a result, the conversations which go on around us and of which we are part are often negative rather than affirmative. Gossip, back-biting, criticising or running others down; these are standard parts of many everyday conservations. Those attending the ‘Lyfe’ course which we are currently running in the Cluster were encouraged this week to try to bring a breath of fresh air to their workplace or home. It was suggested that they make it their aim to speak well of everyone, try and turn gossiping conversations around and if they do find fault in someone, find a way to flip it round so they can come alongside them and help them to grow. This is about pursuing a compassionate life which includes breathing new life into our relationships and interactions by representing Jesus and his love to the people around us.
Ultimately, what we do and say derives from those things that we focus on as we go through life. If we focus on negatives then we are likely to say and do negative things, if we focus on affirmation, as we have been thinking about this more, then we are more likely to say and do affirmative things.
‘Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.’ (Philippians 4. 8)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gungor - You Have Me.
No comments:
Post a Comment