Spiritual Presence

I am not a big fan of deciding how to live my life unless and until I can find parallels in the scriptures to support my assumptions.  I personally like to think of pairing my experiences within the framework of a biblical context. When I ponder presence, I immediately think of a few examples in scripture that help me draw some boundaries around my principles.  

Here’s another way of saying what I mean:  I think for people who ascribe to the Christian faith it is always a good idea to challenge my lived experience with a consistent study of God’s word.  It will not always be helpful. If I look in the scriptures to understand how best to feed my grandchildren, I find no answers. But if I consider what it means to be a decent grandparent in general and sometimes even specifically, I find breadcrumbs that help me evaluate my daily life choices as a MeMe.

Tomorrow we will consider one biblical example of presence in the face of bad behavior.  Prepare for future days of conversation by asking yourself the tough questions: what “presence” failures have you experienced?  What did you learn? What patterns do you notice that continue to trip you up in terms of practicing presence? Are there any examples of times when you felt you failed only to later learn that others disagree?