. Far from chastising me, He embraces me with love. He makes me eat at His table. He serves me with His own hands and gives me the key to His treasures. He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways. And He treats me in all respects as His favorite. In this way I consider myself continually in His holy presence.
This is Brother Lawrence’s description of how he is treated by His Lord. Compare your circumstances with those of Brother Lawrence: Brother Lawrence was born Nicholas Herman around 1610 in Herimenil, Lorraine, a Duchy of France. His birth records were destroyed in a fire at his parish church during the Thirty Years War, a war in which he fought as a young soldier. It was also the war in which he sustained a near fatal injury to his sciatic nerve. The injury left him quite crippled and in chronic pain for the rest of his life. He devoted most of his life to his monastery where he worked as a cook and in the sandal shop. Still He considered God “full of mercy and goodness.” He felt embraced with the love of God and a guest at the King’s table where God served him and delighted in him incessantly. He considered himself His favorite.
What is our real concept of God? Do we feel that close to Him and that loved by Him? Why did this monk in constant pain and living a life of servitude feel so honored by God?
Because his life was focused on the continuous acknowledgement of the presence of God. I believe our problem is that we live our life too much in this world and not enough in the spiritual. This world may seem like all that is real; but is it? Isn’t the reality is that we are sons of a King with a guaranteed inheritance and a promise of eternal bliss. If we can get hold of that reality, we can live like Brother Lawrence and enjoy the presence of God.
Nick
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