Many of us who are Church goers, spend quite a few hours dedicated to God each week. Just going to church services, we can go Sunday morning and Sunday evening plus some additional time on Wednesday evening. Then perhaps we attend a weekday bible study, or maybe an hour or two in Sunday school. In addition many christians spend time each day engaged in private prayer, a time spent comuning with God. The question arises; is all of that enough?
Jesus said; “I am the vine and you are the branches.” His explanation was that in order for us to be truly fruitful we had to remain “plugged into” the source of our fruitfulness, Jesus himself. It makes me wonder if Church-going fulfills that requirement. If you cut a branch off of a grapevine and then touch it to the thriving grapevine for several times each week can any of us expect for the severed branch to be fruitful? Maybe church-going and daily prayer are not really enough to stay plugged into Jesus.
A number of years ago I led a book study for the Bible study folks here at Ascension and St. Mark’s that I thought did a really good job of addressing that one problem. The problem amounted to asnswering the question, How can I stay plugged into Jesus all of the time? Actually The question might be better phrased, How can I stay plugged into Jesus and still get anything else done? How do busy mothers stay plugged into Jesus? How do cooks and bakers stay plugged into Jesus. How do Policemen and women stay plugged into Jesus? How do any of us in our busy and chaotic lives stay plugged into Jesus and still get the mundane tasks of our regular lives taken care of?
The book that we studied was written a few hundred years ago by a humble monk in a monastery. Now, before you go thinking, “AHA, no wonder, he was a monk!” He wasn’t a typical monk. He was a monk on the bottom of the heierarchy of monkism. He was the dishwasher in the kitchen. He washed the dishes and cleaned the floors and wiped off the tables for a few hundred others, three times a day. He was actually a pretty busy fellow. The man’s name was Brother Lawrence, and he was just an ordinary guy busting his hump every day. And yet he learned how to to stay plugged into Jesus. His little book is entitled The Practice of the Presence of God.
Brother Lawrence discovered that God was with him when he was mopping the floor. He discovered that God was at his shoulder while he was up to his elbows in dishwater. He found the near presence of Jesus in every aspect of his life as he went through his daily life. And the secret is simple. But I am not going to spill the secret. To do so would spoil the pleasure of each of you making the discovery for yourselves. So, go get the book. The whole book is only about 50 pages long. And the pages are little bitty. You can get the book here: https://ia802302.us.archive.org/27/items/brotherlawrencep00lawr/brotherlawrencep00lawr.pdf
If that fails, google it. There are lots and lots of places that offer the wisdom of a dishwashing monk to the world for free. If that still doesn’t work, reply to this email and I will send you a copy, gladly.
If you wish to truly abide in Jesus. If you wish to be truly fruitful for the Kingdom. If you wish that you had the strength of the Almighty at your fingertips, I want everyone to know that God desires all of his children be that close. If you will draw near to him, He will draw ever nearer to you. And the means to do that He revealed to all of us in the words of a simple man who led a busy life.
May God abide with you always and bless you all.