I am here

Spiritual resource to share: presence



I remember the countless times that one of my boys took either a tumble, got scared, or felt lost and was so easily comforted by my presence and those words "I am here." Potent stuff. This reminded me of how God must care for each of us and helped me get through a rough patch a few days ago.

I had a couple of days where I kept having this he-said-she-said kind of argument going on in my head. I just struggled against this ruminating, rehearsing and repeating thought. I realized it was part of a more disturbing sinking feeling of seeing everything that I felt most sacred turning inward, trivial and forgettable.

I prayed and wrestled some more. And then, what happened next was quite lovely. Some hymns came in to save me. Whenever one of these thoughts would come up, immediately a hymn would sweep in and yank out the unwelcomed thought. Another thought and another hymn would sweep it out. Soon, most of my day was spent singing and sweeping as I did what needed to be done for that day.

The following day I had the same thing happen. But more, I could feel God's presence - God saying to me "I am here."

The next day, I spent more time in prayer. At first I was simply pleading to feel the assurance of God governing. This slowly turned me toward a subtle suggestion that I could love. This felt fresh. I could love. And the baggage of past accomplishments which moulded my future expectations could be surrendered to a larger plan.

Understanding God as Principle, Love and Truth, I could yield and trust Principle to establish the right reasoning I wanted to see in this situation. I could trust Truth to reveal whatever needed revealing, and I could trust Love to "remove properly whatever is offensive." God, our Father - Mother God, does not leave any of his children comfortless. "Trust Truth" - was my other line of defense; "Let in the light" - was another line of defense.

In feeling the largeness of God's presence, the mental arguments stopped. Something fresh was brewing and I knew that my part in this was to love and to comfort.

"I am here." What comforting power and presence. It is made up of I AM, as God names himself in Genesis "I am that I am." All that God is - is here right now - in all His fullness and possibilities, in all Her tenderness and nearness.

I'll leave you with an excerpt from an old favorite poem entitled Countdown to Sunrise by Rosemary Cobham:

I am His own, not wondering what I am;
Contented to be the expression of His I AM;
And in the marvelously clear light of this awareness,
I lightly rise to explore eternal day.

(Photo by Gabe Korinek)

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