thesoulpurposedotorg

I happened to read and hear the musings of two aging spiritual giants this past week: The Rev. Billy Graham and The Rev. Gardner Taylor, both men in the 80’s. Graham is featured in this week’s Newsweek and Taylor was interviewed on PBS Relgion and Ethics Newsweekly Each man spoke of a similiar regret in life. This is my interpretation of their regret: that they did not spend more time in simply being in God’s presence. In Taylor’s words:

Taylor keeps busy, but in recent years, he says he’s begun to practice what 19th-century British pastor Alexander McLaren called “sitting silent before God.”

Rev. TAYLOR: This is not praying, it is not reading, it is just opening oneself. It’s a mystic kind of thing. But we do so little of it, and we who preach are likely to engage ourselves in so many things and to neglect that aspect of being open to what God has to say. And I wish to heaven I had practiced this more early on in my ministry.

Graham speaks more of a desire to have studied more but returns each night when he wakes from a restless sleep, to repeat the 23rd Psalm. The writer describes Graham this way:

“A unifying theme of Graham’s new thinking is humility….I believe the love of God is absolute. He said he gave his son for the whole world and I think he loves everybody regardless of what label they have.”

I’m about three decades short of these men’s years and likely eons short of their wisdom and paltry in terms of effectiveness in ministry. But I certainly do know of what they speak. The sweet priviledge of simply sitting in God’s presence is something that doesn’t have to wait until we leave this earthly realm. God longs for us to just be present and life becomes so much less chaotic and confusing when we do.

Simply put: Either embrace the Mystery or be destined to confusion.