From the Intro to Brother Lawrence's Practicing God's Presence:
One of the most difficult things for us to do, yet most important to Our Father, is to let God be God. This sounds silly, doesn't it? How can we, mere humans, do anything else? The more we know of God's divine unchanging nature, the more obvious it becomes that we cannot change God. He always was, is now, and ever will be constant and unchanging.So, then, why do we try? The problem for us and for God lies in the trying. We interfere. We meddle. We not only tell God what to do but how to do it. We try to give Him the benefit of our expertise, especially when it comes to others. We may sometimes take advantage of our special relationship with Him to advise Him on worldly matters. After all, we have His attention and are in His presence, so why not? Perhaps this will help:
"He (Brother Lawrence) said that as far as the miseries and sins he heard of daily in the world, he was so far from wondering at them, that, on the contrary, he was surprised there were not more considering the malice sinners were capable of. For his part, he prayed for them. But knowing that God could remedy the mischief they did when He pleased, he gave himself no further trouble."
Quite simply it all comes down to a matter of faith. It is a matter of faith in a special form called holy indifference. Unlike worldly indifference, holy indifference is an expression of our honor and esteem for Our Father.
Worldly indifference does not care and has no compassion. Worldly indifference lacks faith in an all-caring and compassionate God. Holy indifference is the special form of faith that is certain of an all-caring and compassionate God. In our relationship with God, this faith expresses our great love and respect for His superiority over us and His total capability of handling all of His creation.
Then, as a result of our lives of prayerful conversation with God and in the faith of holy indifference, we, like Brother Lawrence, can humbly say, "I do not pray that you may be delivered from your pains; but I pray earnestly that God gives you strength and patience to bear them as long as He pleases." As a result of our practice of the presence of God, the holy habit, we will come to understand how to let God be God.
Recent Comments