“The many things we have to do, the hundred and one calls on our time and attention, don’t get between ourselves and God. On the contrary they are to us in very truth his Body and his Blood.”
—H. A. Williams in The Joy of God (Templegate, 1992).
Well, this is a novel idea! We anticipate during the day the quiet time that we will have writing or walking or practicing Centering Prayer; but the interactions we have with people during the day and at work are just as much a part of our relationship with God!
The God within us is meeting with the God in our neighbor or the patients we work with, or our co-workers or our partners, or the children we teach or our fellow students. This is like turning on a switch in our brain. Our life is not divided into parts. Every part of our being is an offering. Every second, every hour is an opportunity to share the love we have been so freely given. We should tape this Williams quote to the back of our cell phones to read whenever we get that last-minute phone call just as we are leaving our office.
My experience actually has been that such calls turn out to be some of the most important ones we get. It could be a novel idea to imagine each time that it is God calling.
Such awareness is a blending of the doing and the being aspects of our lives, our Martha and Mary parts. Perhaps at times we are called into a state of being; and at other times we’re led to concentrate on doing. I think Williams is asking us to consider both of these states as offerings to God.
I wonder if Jesus’ story of his visit to Mary and Martha would have been different if Martha had believed her doing was just as important, but not more important, than Mary’s being?
Joanna. Joannaseibert.com
Release party!!!!!!!!!!!
Come and get a signed copy of the new book
Just in time for the holidays
A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany
The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Both are $18
All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast
Seibert’s, 27 River Ridge Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72227
10 to noon, this Saturday September 14, 2019
RSVP joannaseibert@me.com