I am a professor, so of course, when I take roll I expect my students to be present in the classroom. Studies have regularly shown that being in the classroom increases learning and improves grades. That seems like a true no-brainer, but it really isn’t. My college students think they can just read the book or get the notes from someone. That just doesn’t work in my classes because the subjects I teach are, in part, experiential. That is to say you “just had to be there”.
Why is it that we Christians often think that we can just read the text or “get the notes” from someone? We really don’t have to be present, we just have to believe. We even do that to the Sacred, we just believe and just accept what the Scriptures say and move on. We are never actually present with the Great Presence of all of life. There is a wonderful and short book by Brother Lawrence entitled Practicing the Presence of God.
This book sounds so holy, so spiritual. Read it and you will find the beauty of Brother Lawrence lies in the simplicity. You see Brother Lawrence was not a priest or holy man but a simple monk who loved to bake bread for God. Lawrence found God in every moment, in the process of baking, in the process of living a very simple life. This book should be required reading for every Christian everywhere.
Presence. That word is powerful. When the Creator of all of the Universe calls the roll, are we in class? Are we taking note? The classroom is your very life and the entirety of nature all around you. To be present in each moment does not require knowledge or even belief, it just requires us all to be present to God in all of God’s forms. Birds, animals, trees, stones, rivers…..well you get the idea.
Today, on the way to work, in the face of your child or spouse, at the birdbath, in the face of your co-workers see the face of the living God. Bask in the presence of that Presence. As we move toward Spring, toward Easter in the Christian realm, be open the rebirth that is all around you. You don’t have to believe in anything or study anything, just enjoy. Just answer the Roll with “I am present!”
TMM