Beside Us
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
A chair faces me.
In the chair sits Jesus, looking at me.
This is the imaginative way I have prayed for the last two weeks. While effective, it can be as intense as staring at the sun. One can bear up only so long under the loving gaze of Christ.
A friend suggested I place the chair beside me, where it now sits to my right. I find this change in position helps me better know God’s withness. Jesus and I sit side by side in chairs facing windows with lush greenery. We keep company, observe wildlife, and mine the meaning of desire.
Most of all, we practice presence: me to him and him to me and us to the world. (I should say I’m practicing; he is the Master of Presence.) My aim is to carry this awareness and connection into the day. Some days I do that better than others.
“I will keep my eyes always on the Lord,” says the Psalmist David. “With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
Eyes always on the Lord. Until they aren’t.
I will not be shaken. Until you are.
Until King Saul’s chasing you down and you flee to the enemy and drool down your beard and claw at doors so they think you’re insane and don’t kill you (1 Sam 21).
And that’s not even David’s lowest moment. David gave God a dozen reasons to give up on him. But God didn’t. And for his part, David didn’t give up on God. He kept humbling himself, kept repenting, kept returning and refocusing and rekindling awareness of the God who never left him even in his darkest hour.
Aren’t you glad Scripture tells it like it is? It shows we can — we must — face fear to come into faith and honor heartache to arrive at honest hope.
The Church needs songs that do that, too — songs that proclaim truth without denying trials and temptations. I’m delighted to see some of them sprouting up (like #3 on the list below). I’ve put my pen to the task, too, and am in the studio today recording a song called “Well Within Your Grace.”
Here’s a demo recording. And the lyrics:
—–
When sorrows stay by our side
When heartbreak is on our mind
When praises seem out of touch
When we’re sure we’ve had enough
You have never given up on us
Jesus you’re beside us
Come feast or famine
Whatever happens
You’re good just the same
We set our affection
On things of heaven
Our darkest hour
Is well within your grace
We’ve seen you time after time
Now trauma has closed our eyes
Awaken our hearts to hope
When there’s nowhere left to go
You will always be our rock, our home
Lord be our meditation
Our thought by thought salvation
Til you come again
You promised not to leave us
Sometimes we leave you, Jesus
Lord we want to stay
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
St. Patrick’s Lorica (Latin for armor, “breastplate”) is a prayer of consciously choosing to abide in the protective and empowering presence of the Trinity.
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2.
Pilgrimage (a free Lectio 365 podcast series by Pete Greig) invites listeners into Bible readings, prayers, and reflections on enfolding our coming and going in God’s presence.
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3.
“Though we don’t see you, we love you / When we don’t feel you, we still sing / We’ve got a reason to trust you / Jesus in everything,” sings the Mission House band in their new song “Faith More Precious than Gold.”
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4.
Meditating on the Twenty Third psalm regularly, over time, helps us embrace our Good Shepherd’s presence and protection as a lived reality, not just a nice idea. I shared an excerpt from Dallas Willard’s Life without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23 a year ago, but have enjoyed returning to it and think you might, too.
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5.
“The sense of being led by an unseen hand which takes mine while another hand reaches ahead and prepares the way, grows upon me daily,” writes Frank Laubach in Living Each Moment with a Sense of God’s Presence.
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6.
This 7‑part series filmed at the end of Dallas Willard’s life, “Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God,” is Dallas’ teaching on a theme that permeated his writing and teaching — “it is possible to intimately know the Trinity and step into their glorious kingdom.” (A helpful discussion guide by Gary Moon goes along with the course for those who might want to use it with their church group).
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
Love Him, then; keep Him as a friend. He will not leave you as others do, or let you suffer lasting death.
– Thomas à Kempis
Chapter 8, Imitation of Christ
(source)
TO CONTEMPLATE
Christ as the Good Shepherd
Museo Epigrafico, Rome - Fourth Century A.D.
(source)
TO PONDER
Is there a situation or circumstance in your life right now where you need a gracious reminder of God’s withness? Take a few moments to commit (or re-commit) that situation or circumstance to God, asking for a renewed confidence that Jesus is right beside us in it all – the good, the bad, the mess.