Dear fellow followers of Jesus,

In an article in the book, The Diversity of Centering Prayer, Thomas Keating writes,

St. Teresa of Avila once wrote that all difficulties in prayer come from one single flaw: praying as if God were absent. Many of our difficulties in daily life are probably the result of living as if God were absent (p. 16).

So, what do you think – do you pray and/or live – as if God were absent? We good, upstanding religious people would never say that God is absent, would we? So maybe another way to think of this is that possibly we pray and/or live as if God were far away (as opposed to being close).

What would be different if we prayed and lived as if God were both present and close? Would it be like the cartoon where the little devil is saying, “Do it!!” and the little angel is saying, “No, don’t do it”? Is that what we think about when we think of God being close – some kind of divine policeman, watching our every move, ready to catch us doing wrong?

O God, I hope not!

I think what it means to pray and live as if God were present and close is about realizing that the whole world and everything in it and about it is God’s. Everything we have, everything we are, everything – EVERYTHING – is a gift from God.

Now, when we realize that, we might indeed hear the little voice saying “do that” or “don’t do that”, but it will be the voice of One who loves us, not one who is policing us. One who wants to be close, wants to love us with a depth we can barely imagine, One who wants us to have life and have it ABUNDANTLY – One who promises us joy.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, I promise you this – God is not only present, God is close. May the days ahead be filled with the realization and joy found in that presence and closeness. God bless you, and please – know you are loved!

George+