From Max Lucado and his book “Just Like Jesus”:
It’s a wonderful day indeed when we stop working for God and begin working with God. (Go ahead, read that sentence again.)
For years I viewed as a compassionate CEO and my role as a loyal sales representative. He had his office, and I had my territory. I could contact him as much as I wanted. He was always a phone or fax away. He encouraged me, rallied behind me,and supported me, but he didn’t go with me. At least I didn’t think he did. Then I read 2 Corinthians 6:1: “We are God’s fellow workers” (NIV).
Fellow workers? Co-laborers? God and I work together? Imagine the paradigm shift this truth creates. Rather than report to God, we work with God. Rather than check in with him and leave, we check in with him and then follow. We are always in the presence of God. We never leave church. There is never a non-sacred moment! His presence never diminishes. Our awareness of his presence may falter, but the reality of his presence never changes.
This leads me to a great question. If God is perpetually present, is it possible to enjoy unceasing communion with him? In the last chapter we discussed the importance of setting aside daily time to spend with God. Let’s take the thought a step further. A giant step further. What if your daily communion never ceased? Would it be possible to live—minute by minute—in the presence of God? Is such intimacy even possible? One man who wrestled with these questions wrote:
Can we have contact with God all the time? All the time awake, fall asleep in His arms and awaken to his presence? Can we attain that? Can we do his will all the times? . . . Can I bring the Lord back into my mind-flow every few seconds so that God shall always be in my mind? I choose to make the rest of my life an experiment in answering this question.1
The words are found in the journal of Frank Laubach. Born in the United States in 1884, he was a missionary to the illiterate, teaching them to read so that they could know the beauty of the Scriptures. What fascinates me about this man, however, is not his teaching. I’m fascinated by his listening. Dissatisfied with his life, at age forty-five Laubach resolved to live in “continuous conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to His will.”2
He chronicled this experiment, begun January 30,1930, in his journal. Laubach’s words have inspired me so much, I’ve included some key passages here. As you read them, keep in mind that they were not penned by a monk in a monastery but by a busy dedicated instructor. By the time he died in 1970, Laubach and his techniques of education were known on almost every continent. He was widely respected and widely traveled. The desire of his heart was not recognition, however, but the unbroken communion with the Father.
~~~ January 26, 1930: I’mfeeling God in each movement, by an act of will—willing that He shall direct these fingers that now strike this typewriter—-willing that He shall pour through my steps as I walk.
~~~ March 1, 1930: The sense of being Led by an unseen hand which takes mine while another hand reaches ahead and prepares the way, grows upon me daily. . . . sometimes it requires a long time early in the morning. I determine not to get out of bed until the mind set upon the Lord is settled.
~~~ April 18, 1930: I have tasted a thrill in fellowship with God which has made anything discordant with God disgusting. This afternoon the possession of God has caught me up with such sheer joy that I thought I had never known anything like it. God was so close and so amazingly lovely that I felt like melting all over with a strange blissful contentment. Having had this experience, which comes to me several times a week, the thrill of filth repels me, for I know it’s power to drag me from God. And after an hour of close friendship with God my soul feels clean, as new fallen snow.
~~~May 14, 1930: Oh, this thing of keeping in constant touch with God, of making Him the object of my thought and the companion of my conversations, is the most amazing thing I ever ran across. It is working. I cannot do even half a day—not yet, but I believe that I shall be doing some day for the entire day. It is a matter of acquiring a new habit of thought.
~~~May 24, 1930: This concentration upon God is strenuous, but everything else has ceased to be so. I think more clearly, I forget less frequently. Things which I did with strain before, I now do easily with no effort, whatsoever. I worry about nothing and lose no sleep. I walk on air a good part of the time. Even the mirror reveals a new light in my eyes and face. I am no longer in a hurry about anything. Everything goes right. Each minute I meet calmly as though it were not important. Nothing can grow wrong except one thing. That is that God may slip from my mind.
~~~June 1, 1930: Ah, God, what an new nearness this brings for Thee and me, to realize that Thou alone can understand me, for Thou alone knowest all! Thou art no longer a stranger, God! Thou art the only being in the universe who is not partly a stranger! Thou art all the way inside me—here. . . . I mean to struggle today and tomorrow as never before, not once to dismiss thee. For when I lose thee for an hour I lose. The thing thou wouldst do can only be done when Thou hast full sway all the time. ~~~Max Lucado, Just Like Jesus ( World Publishing, Nashville, A Thomas Nelson Company, 1998) p.59-63
