Associating with God

A great deal of my life and ministry is 'glamorous' by anyone's standards! I get to fly around the world and speak about topics that I've written about in books. I am constantly humbled and amazed that people would listen. Most often at the seminars, conferences, and gatherings I speak at I encounter women and men who have a far greater understanding of the subjects I speak on. Sometimes they are better practitioners of my topic, at other times they have deeper insights, frequently they are more articulate.

But, by the grace of God I have the opportunity to do what I do - and so I don't stand back. I wake early, I go to bed late. I work hard to be creative and passionate about transforming the world to conform to the values of God's gracious Kingdom. I believe that it is a good thing to spend my life in order to try and facilitate transformation in the people I encounter and the systems within which we live. God cares about people - very much so! And so I care about people. God also cares about the systems that help us and the systems that hinder our living. God cares about politics and freedom. God cares about health care. God cares about education, reproductive rights, racial, gender and ethic issues... God cares about animals and plants. God cares about the world - very much so! And, so do I.

I want to encourage you, if you have not already done so, to associate far more closely with God. It takes humility to be in God's presence, because there no-one is love any more or less than anyone else. We are all loved completely. It takes courage to associate with God. Since in God's presence we see ourselves for who we truly are. There are no titles, positions, lists of publications, 'speakers introductions' or bank balances in God's presence. There is just God, God's love and God's people.

This picture of the KL skyline taken from my Hotel room informed my prayers this morning. In these apartments and houses are women and men that God loves. There are families, there are joys, struggles, hopes and aspirations. Some are free to find true life, others are bound by circumstances that stop them from truly living. But, what is common to each of us is God's loving and transforming grace!

This quote via @Invisibleforeigner touched me deeply as I was praying and reading the scriptures this morning.

Since Moses was alone, by having been stripped as it were of the people’s fear, he boldly approached the very darkness itself and entered the invisible things where he was no longer seen by those watching. After he entered the inner sanctuary of the divine mystical doctrine, there, while not being seen, he was in company with the Invisible. He teaches, I think, by the things he did that the one who is going to associate intimately with God must go beyond all that is visible and—lifting up his own mind, as to a mountaintop, to the invisible and incomprehensible—believe that the divine is there where the understanding does not reach.

— St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses

Today I shall be flying from Kuala Lumpur to Penang to participate in a conference. Please pray for me, and for my colleague Steve Johnstone. Please pray for the people we shall be with. Pray that we may encounter each other in God's grace and that God may be glorified in our speech, thought, actions and togetherness. Pray that we may have the courage to be true to God and to ourselves, and that by the grace of Christ we may have the courage to act with integrity to participate in God's mission of renewing and transforming this little peace of God's good earth.