Last weekend my wife and I were privileged to spend some time out at Francois Lake. It is a massive lake, 110 kilometres in length, near the communities of Fraser Lake and Burns Lake.
My wife had some connections out there. They had moved there many years ago to raise their children in an A-frame wooden house the father had built.
There are some places where it seems easy to experience the transcendent. Time slowed down. The home was out of cell range and they had opted out of Internet service.
I enjoyed the evening playing music on instruments foreign to me, the heat of the wood stove making me drowsy and content. In the morning we had cheesecake for breakfast (Lord bless the Polish) and went for a walk on the lake, with blue skies and smooth ice.
Divinity revealed itself in creation. God seemed to be saturated in the simplicity and stillness of the wooden house.
Yet God inhabits all of life. It is not that God is any less present as you sit reading this article, but that our awareness of that truth fluctuates. Perhaps my prayer should not be, "God be with me" but, "God allow me to be aware of your presence."
As Lent approaches, this experience reminds me of the gift that fasting from distractions can be. One reason I am more aware of God in such places is because my attention is less divided. We are a distracted people in this age, our attention is commandeered by our devices.
Singer/songwriter Jon Foreman in his song Ghost Machine sings this in his opening verse about these devices: "All hail the siren of our time/ I'm possessed when she passes by/ She drains the best years of my life/ She makes promises/ She could never keep."
Maybe this Lent you can make a decision that would make you more present to those around you and the reality of the presence of the divine all the created world is steeped in. Choose a day to ditch your phone, cancel your Netflix for a few months, shut off your Internet on odd days, delete those apps that steal your spare time. March 1 is coming up, friends.
I will leave you with a prayer that has come up in my devotions over the past few weeks. I have greatly enjoyed meditating on this. May you be present to the creator who is present at all times in all things.
I believe God is present in each moment and event of my life, and I ask for the grace to awaken, see and feel where and how, especially in this present moment.
