Presence

One of my favorite Sunday school classes that I have ever been a part of was one taken a few years ago that taught me about thin places.  Thin places meaning the place in which the meeting of two different planes of existence coincide and are thinner than what is found in most places and we have the amazing and incredible opportunity to feel something greater and not of this world. A quiet and a peace is found that is unlike any other. There is a quiet calling to be at peace, a gentle pull to be still, listen and be part of a presence that is far greater than this world.  The question of where does one find these special places and how do respond when we find them. Is there some special and amazing device that tunes us into finding such places and moments in our lives?

 

I used to think that in order to find such moments, I needed to go somewhere and experience a place to find the quiet and the presence that I was in desperate search of. Sometimes the world can be too much to handle and life needs to slow down just a bit. It’s crazy how fast paced life can be, the amount of time allotted for this and that never seems to be quite enough. If only the said day had one or two more hours left in to do just a bit more of something.  To escape somewhere different and out of the ordinary day to day was a very wanted and needed thing. Life can be at times too much and the pressures we all feel to be what ever it is that we think we need to be pushes more and more to be of this world. In reality though we are not of this world, we simply live in this world and journey a road that is not always an easy road.  Some roads are clear and perfect and others are full of crossroads made up of bumps and potholes that seem to catch us up from time to time.

 

It is in these crossroads that we have seek God’s presence even more. God never said that life would be easy. It would so much easier if life were full of rainbows and butterflies. That is hardly ever the case though. It has been in the toughest moments of my life that I have found the thinnest places. It is at my absolute weakest moments when I have to seek God the most. When times are the at their worst I know that a minute to minute conversation with the one that knows me the best has to be ever present. It is in my brokenness that I know I can find a whole and completeness to a better me. I am however unable to go it alone. Sometimes it’s the simple act of asking someone to say some extra prayers that can make all of the difference in wherever it is that I find myself in life.  Where three or more are gathered He is truly found. To walk this world in different place and on a plane that only some will find is beyond what I ever thought possible for a small town girl like me. The fact that the presence of God is is everywhere and in everything I do is so freeing. That knowledge alone has an impact on life and how I can choose to view it.

 

The ever sought after thin place seemed for awhile to exist only in the quiet of a sunrise or the silence of a quiet morning at the beach.  As I continued my search of thin places finding them seemed to become easier and easier. They were not always found in the big picturesque snapshots of life.  Snapshots are nice and all but life has it’s fair of mundane moments. It’s human nature to grow accustomed to the normal things we each do in life and stick with it. Those things soon became an everyday occurrence. We forget to live a life that is full of a sense of wonder and delight in all that we do.  As I searched for my thin places I began to find that the secret to finding them was taking delight in each person, place, and things that I came into contact with.  To seek the good and beauty in a world that can seem so harsh and full of the unexpected and uncertainty is challenging and seems to be hopeless sometimes. To seek God and his presence we have to learn to be open to what it is that God asks us to seek. It is so confusing at times. Just when I think I have it all worked out and I have learned the said lesson that God is asking me to learn there is another lesson generally lying within the first lesson I had learned. To know that we will never stop learning and we will  continue to have these moments of realization is where hope lives and continues to push us to seek God’s hand in everything that we do. It is the fact the what we have learned is only the beginning of where God is leading me has helped me know that thin places and seeking God on a day to day basis is the only way to live life in his presence. The simple fact that I am forever His as long as I say yes, made finding thin places so much easier.  The choice of living and saying yes to God’s will is our choice and ours alone. No can make us live a life that is so full of God and knowledge in the the fact that we never walk alone. When the going gets tough and the world we walk in seems to fail us all the way around we can rest easy in the peace and presence of knowing  that there is more to life than what we just see. There is more to everything that just meets the eye.

 

So here is to a a life full of thin places. Remember that they can be found in the smallest things and most unexpected moments.  They can be felt in a smile or the beauty of raindrop. There is so much for us beyond this world. May we each continue to seek something greater than we thought possible. Know that living in His presence means that the cares of this world don’t have to take such precedence. It is the quiet calling to be filled with that presence and to show the face of love that goes beyond this world’s understanding can and will make the world and each person in it better than we can ever imagine.   It is in our greatest moments of weakness that we can be made into greater children of God than we can fathom. #talesofasiren #lovealways #bethechange #maketheworldabetterplace #liveinHispresence.  Have a fantastic week my friendlies!!

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