There’s a story about a couple who had been married quite sometime. One afternoon they were driving through the countryside in their antique Buick – the type that have those front bench seats. The wife, who was leaning against the passenger door, turned to her husband, who was driving, and said, “Dear, do you remember when we used to sit together on this front seat and cuddle as you drove?” He turned to her and responded, “In twenty years, I haven’t moved.”

Our relationship with God has its ebbs and flows. There are the mountain tops and the valleys. Sometimes we feel closer to God than at other times. This is the focus of today’s Reflection in continuation with our series on Intimacy with God.

In the previous Reflection, we talked about how we refer to God’s location. We often refer to Him living in eternity, as though eternity were somewhere outside of our time and space. Let me offer you a different idea. Eternity is eternally present.

When God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush, He referred to Himself as I AM. Perhaps this is an extraordinary insight into the realm of eternity. You and I base our existence and even talk about our experiences in the context of a timeline. “I did this, I went there, I used to do this.” The past tense is likely the most common verb form used in our language. We also employ the future tense quite a bit as well – “I will do this later” or “I want to do this.”

But what about the present tense? I would venture to say that we often don’t utilize it because it is merely a verbalization of our current action. In other words, we live the present tense rather than talk about it.

However, if you’re like me, you get distracted. I can scan the pages of a book, and before I know it, my mind is elsewhere – thinking about something I did or I’m going to do. Sometimes my mind and my body are totally disconnected. I have to stop myself and refocus. Often times I do this verbally. “Come on Justin! Get your head in the game. Focus!”

My good friend Dr. Bill Smith, whom many know from New Hope Chapel, teaches and counsels people on issues regarding leadership to addictive behavior to sleep deprivation. A recent article of his called “The Sleep Game” caught my attention:

The word “pretend” is made up of two words, “tend” which means “to take care of”, and “pre” which means “ahead of time.” Your system (or sub-conscious mind) has no ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. Pretending is done with the conscious mind. The subconscious believes and follows the conscious mind. So, the problem with thinking, “I am going to sleep” is the subconscious will follow that instruction literally. Instead of sleeping the subconscious will keep you awake so you can be in the state of “going”.

While all of us can relate to at least a few nights of restlessness, it isn’t the sleep part that caught my attention (though I will be sure to apply his methods if I have trouble sleeping). What caught my attention is how this brain activity relates to prayer.

Like the wife in the old Buick, we often merely think about our relationship with God. How do we think about it? We often think of it in the past – the awesome experience we had with God; or we think about it in the future – at some point we’ll reconnect with Him (even if it’s later today). But as long as we think about Him this way, we will perceive God to be somewhere along our timeline or spatial scope and never in our present moment. He will always be “I was” or “I will be” but rarely or never I AM.

What ends up happening is a cycle. You think about God in terms of past or future time and space; therefore, you perceive God to be distant from you. If you perceive God to be spatially distant from you, then you feel as if you don’t have a present relationship with Him. If you don’t have a present relationship with Him, then you feel you are failing as a Christian. If you feel you are failing as a Christian, then you think about God in more distant terms. Gradually, our conscious mind pushes God further and further away, and our subconscious mind follows along.

You know how to break the cycle of feeling distant from God? Be present with Him. On Sunday, Bill did a tremendously powerful yet simple prayer exercise with us during communion. Together we said, “Father, I am here. Father, I am listening.” When I said those words, something inside my brain started firing. My conscience told my subconscious that I am here in the presence of God, and that I am listening. My subconscious showed me God and alerted me to His speaking. Suddenly, my heart was at peace. I was present with God.

Remember, if we ever feel distant from God, it is not because He has moved away. God is always present with us. We don’t need to invite God into our presence; we need to invite ourselves into His – “Father, I am here.”

Let me invite you to do this right now. I want you to pray, but as you pray verbalize it in the present, avoiding past or future tense verbs. It might go something like this. “Father, I am here. I am listening to you. I am being clothed in Christ. You are making me new. I see you. I am experiencing your glory, your peace, your joy…”