CP W4 D1 Jesus Calls the Disciples (Mark 1:14-20)

Today's Bible reading is about Jesus calling the Disciples. You're all familiar with the story... Jesus basically takes a walk through a bunch of fishermen. He looks at a few and merely says "follow me" and they actually drop what they're doing and follow Him (for the rest of their lives). We are asked to reflect on when we have felt God's presence in such a direct way.

I usually experience God's presence - yes, the feeling that God is here with me right now - in two differently ways. The first is usually associated with momentous events in my life. I remember one Saturday afternoon back when we lived in Virginia a few weeks after John was born. I was sitting, holding him in my lap on the rocking chair and he was being quiet for a change. We were just staring into each other's eyes... for what seemed like a long time. I remember feeling a fleeting moment of panic about how huge a task it was being responsible for another life. But that was immediately replaced by a stillness of my mind accompanied by the sensation of God telling me (through my thoughts) that He would see me through this. I had a similar moment a few months after Billy died (as well as others throughout my life).

The second way in which I experience God's actual presence with me is very different. This is also a sensation of communing with God, but one that I can sometimes reach during my quiet time. It takes great effort... I really have to work at quieting my brain. Meditation aids like prayer beads, music, candles, etc. help me in this, but I'm not always successful. (In fact, I can't do it every day... more like a couple times a month.) This second type of sensation of God's presence (where I feel Him with me, but not telling me anything) also can come to me when I'm out in nature like today's reading.

There is a final way of feeling the diving presence. It's more cognitive and less of a sensation. It's really just keeping the thought in my head that God IS with me. He always is.