I Look for God When I Do the Dishes
“I search for the Spirit as I take out the trash. The sacred is revealed in brilliant light only rarely, in the flash of some great insight unexpected, but much more than this the holy is to be discovered in our daily lives, in the moments when we are simply being ourselves. Putting the kids to bed, working in the garden, sitting on the porch in the evening: the beauty of eternity is that it hides in plain sight all around us. We are all prophets of the predictable pattern, witnesses to the wonder of the average day.”—Bishop Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Page.
The God of my understanding uses every bit of our lives to call us to God’s love. I remember one morning walking around my block when I took notice of all the trash bins out in front of houses. I suddenly realized on this walk that many of the spiritual disciplines we practice are simply to clear our minds—literally taking out the trash, so we can hear God speak to our lives.
Bishop Charleston is reminding us again of Brother Lawrence’s experience in Practicing the Presence of God, seeking and seeing God in every aspect of our life. He is telling us we don’t have to live in a monastery to find and live this kind of life. He believes we can know God’s presence more in our daily routine than in some St. Paul-like, blinding, falling-off-our-horse, spectacular event.
Bishop Charleston is also practicing the family systems axiom of trying to live a less anxious presence in the world around him. He is looking around with awe at the ever-changing beauty of God’s immanence in the vastness of nature and being transformed by what he sees. He is actively seeking Christ in every place and every person he encounters. This is the spiritual discipline of living in the present moment.
Joanna joannaseibert.com
