Non-judging

Given that God is Immanuel -- the One who is with us every moment of every day in all our circumstances, making grocery shopping as holy an event as church attendance because both can be done in the presence of and in fellowship with God -- then one day is not better than another. Today may be more difficult than yesterday, it may have more fun events in it, it may be more exhausting or more exhilirating than another day, but it is not better.

Romans 8:28 says it this way: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." In other words, no matter what the circumstances of our life look like, God is doing what God is always doing -- working for good, and that makes all our circumstances, in God's hands, a source of good and of blessing.

This is why the Bible can say to "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). How can you give thanks when a car accident has just claimed the life of your husband? How can you give thanks when you've just lost your job? How can you give thanks when your best friend has turned his back on you? How can you give thanks when sin and the devil are flooding in on you?

How, indeed? But even when the circumstances are evil, God is working for the good of those who love Him. Indeed, He even works for the good of those who don't love Him. "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). As the song says, "God is good all the time".

It is not our natural tendency to make an effort to see God in all our circumstances. We naturally react to everything we experience in terms of what we think its value is to us, and usually we define "value" according to how good something makes us feel. And so, when something happens, we make an automatic judgment, and we lock ourselves into that judgment. Which is unfortunate because then we can't see the good. If we wake up and it's raining, and we grumble, "What a rotten day", we may not then hear the robin singing for all it's worth or the fact that the first crocus has poked its head through the melting snow on our lawn or that there's the faintest but still very beautiful rainbow in the sky. And so we miss the blessings of that part of our day.

Because of this, contemplatives work at spotting these judgments and putting them on hold, so they can see everything that's going on in that moment, including God's goodness.

The sacredness of the present moment

A contemplative views the present moment as sacred. This is because the present is the moment in which we live our lives and where God is with us. The past is gone, and the future is not yet ours. There is only the present.

This means that, in one sense, it doesn't matter what is happening in my life right now. I may be in church worshipping or at home vacuuming. In either case, God, who calls Himself Immanuel (God with us) is present. And wherever God is present is holy ground, as Moses discovered when God asked him to remove his shoes in the desert because he was in the presence of God and that made the ground on which he was standing holy. Similarly, whenever God is present is a holy moment.

But people only notice God in their "ordinary" moments if they know to look for Him there. If they think they are only close to God in church, then they may not notice Him in their vacuuming.

This week for me has been a wild mix of emotions. My Mum was suddenly rushed to hospital, and I was distressed. She continued without a diagnosis and a very poor prognosis, and I began to prepare for the worst. That day I was exhausted with hard news. Yesterday, my Mum received a pacemaker and looks better but is so confused that she may not be able to return home. I was happy but challenged. I worked on some Christmas cards and gifts and now am getting ready for a Christmas dinner and dance: appreciation for the season and for my friends and family, and sorrow for my mother's condition. As a contemplative, I entered fully into all these emotions and circumstances because that is my present and where God is closest to me. And He has indeed proven that to be so. I have felt His comfort. I have resolved some of my conflicted emotions about the mother who loved me and also abused me, and I have had healing. I've realized afresh the depth of what God has given us in terms of ultimate freedom from all that is hurtful and troubling and sad. I have worshipped Him in those realizations. In my home, in the midst of my messy life, I have touched God as surely as He may be touched in any sanctuary.

God is Immanuel, the one who promises to be with us to the very end of the age, to never leave us, ever. And we realize that promise of unbroken fellowship in our present moments where we live our ordinary lives.