by John Ortberg
In the beginning when God created the world, he planted a garden in the east, in Eden. The garden gets described at some length in the Bible. God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground that were pleasing to the eye, many bearing fruit sweet and good. He decorated the garden with flowers and put fish in the streams, birds in the sky. Eden was the perfect home God created for his greatest creation: man and woman, Adam and Eve. God made the whole earth so that he would have a place to be with man and woman, you and me. The garden God created represents God’s great desire for “being with.”
For the soul to be well, it needs to be with God.
One of the most intriguing phrases in the Bible is where Adam and Eve “. . . heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” God is Spirit, which means he doesn’t have a body, legs, or feet. What does it sound like when God goes for a walk?
The point of this remarkable phrase is that walking is something you do with somebody you care about — a friend with a friend, a child with a parent. Two people in love would go for a walk. It’s not really about the walk; it’s about being with someone. This God — this God of the Bible — is a God who wants to “be with.” Our souls were made to walk with God.
But the man and the woman sin, deliberately hiding from God among the trees of the garden. Yet God would not be denied. He went after them — in fact, the whole narrative of the Bible is all about God going after us. Relentlessly pursuing us. As Adam and Eve hid behind the trees God created, he called out, “Where are you?” Physically, he knew exactly where they were. What God was really asking was, “Where are you in relation to me?” All God has ever wanted is to be with you, with me. How can that happen?
A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF LIFE WITH GOD
Consider the biblical character Enoch. We know hardly anything about him, but we’re told Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. God was with Abraham, his son Isaac, and his other son Ishmael. God was even with Jacob, a manipulative deceiver. Then a whole tribe, the nation of Israel.
God was also with Joseph — and here’s where “with God” starts to get interesting. Joseph ran into a really hard stretch in his life, and we learn that “the LORD was with Joseph” in slavery, and then, in prison. In other words, God is not just in the garden anymore — he shows up even in the most painful and difficult places. That’s good news for anyone in trouble, and a hint of the Good News to come.
Then God is with Moses, Gideon, Samuel, Ruth, David, and many others until one day God cuts a hole in the wall, and a baby is born. We’re told, “and they will call him Immanuel (which means, ‘God with us’).” Now in Jesus we get a little glimpse of what this “with God” life is like. Not just that, Jesus makes this staggering claim in John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” I am the vine; you are the branch.
Bearing fruit means that we will do wonderful things in our lives for God and his kingdom, but we don’t really have to try all that hard. Instead, we are to make sure we are “with God.” That’s what it means to “abide in the vine” — live intimately with Jesus from one moment to the next. “If you don’t do that,” Jesus says, “nothing much will come out of your life.” It’s kind of like he invites his followers into an experiment because they’re just very ordinary people. How much can an ordinary person do in life on this earth with God in the ordinary moments? And how can I really make sure my soul is with God all the time?
Jesus offers us what he described in John 3:16 as “eternal life.” Just about anyone who has attended church, and even people watching NFL football on Sundays, have heard of John 3:16. Those who think about eternal life usually think the phrase refers to immortality — a life that never ends. Technically, they are right, but the way it is used in the New Testament is not only about duration. It’s not about quantity of years but quality of life with God.
Jesus began this grand experiment with his twelve followers. They’re like his pilot group. He appointed those twelve disciples so that they might be with him. One of them, Judas, chose not to be with him in the end and ended up killing himself. The other eleven change the world because they’re with God through Jesus.
Then there is what has come to be called the Acts 2 community — the first attempt at church. Jesus has returned to be with his Father, but he is still present through his Holy Spirit. Though he is not present physically, his followers find another way of doing life. They devote themselves every day to what Jesus taught: to prayer, to fellowship, to breaking of bread together. They shared what they owned; they served each other’s needs. Ethnic barriers came down as they became known by the way they loved each other. It’s a different community, devoted to a Jesus way of life with God.
NOW IT’S OUR TURN
Over the recent centuries, every once in a while a follower of Jesus gets a vision for this kind of intimate life with God. Centuries ago a man named Nicolas Herman, who was an uneducated household servant from a poor family, got converted to the Christian faith by looking at a tree. It was winter, and the tree was barren, but it occurred to Nicolas that the tree would grow leaves again in the spring. This produced in him a deep sense of God’s care and power. It struck him that if God does that for trees, he would surely do it for a person. So this young man entered into a monastic community, spent his life in the kitchen as a cook and dishwasher, and all the while privately devoted his life to being with God.
Today we know him as Brother Lawrence.
When he died, friends gathered some of his letters together and turned them into a book. The book is called The Practice of the Presence of God. It was written in the seventeenth century and is now thought to be the most widely read book in the history of the human race other than the Bible — this, from an uneducated dishwasher.
When the soul is with God it doesn’t matter if you are a dishwasher or a president. The soul thrives not through our accomplishments but through simply being with God.
Now it’s our turn. How do we — ordinary people living in our world of technology and economic challenges, huge moral debates, and rapidly changing beliefs — how do you and I find a Jesus-way to live? How do we discover the “with God” life that we saw in the lives of the disciples, the Acts 2 church, Brother Lawrence, and others before us?
While there are no magic formulas for being with God, lately I have been conducting a little self-test that I call The Soul Experiment. It’s a simple way of focusing my soul on God throughout the day. I begin each day by challenging myself: How many moments of my life today can I fill with conscious awareness of and surrender to God’s presence? Then I try to deliberately imagine myself doing that at home, at work, in my car, when I’m online, when I’m watching the news, when I’m with others. Can I do the “with God” life all the time? I’ve been trying to make this the goal of my day as opposed to a list of things I have to get done. Can I just keep God in my mind today, regardless of what I’m doing? Here’s a little picture of how it works for me.
One day I had a meeting with my staff that lasted about an hour and a half. When it was over, I realized I had failed for an hour and a half at this experiment. I had not thought about or listened for God a single time in that hour and a half — and I work at a church. Then I had to drive somewhere, and I was grousing in my spirit because I felt like I had too much to do and not enough time to get it done. Do you ever have that kind of thought? I was feeling hurried, impatient, and ill-tempered.
Then this thought came to me: “John, let’s look at the next two hours. You will go through those two hours of your life with me or without me. You can continue doing life without me and feel stressed, pressured, angry, sorry for yourself, impatient, and be a pain in the neck to the people around you. You can do those two hours that way. Or you can do those two hours with me. You can be glad you’re alive. You can be grateful you were given a life. You can be joyful you actually have work to do, and you c
an recognize that I, not you, am running the universe. Actually, I was doing pretty well with it before you were ever even born, and I’ll probably be able to manage whether or not you think you get your list of things to do done in the next two hours. What’s it going to be, John? The next two hours with me or without me?”
When you look at life that way, doesn’t it make sense to say, “Yes, God. I want to do life with you. My soul needs you more than it needs my frustration and impatience.”
The “with God” life is not a life of more religious activities or devotions or trying to be good. It is a life of inner peace and contentment for your soul with the maker and manager of the universe. The “without God” life is the opposite. It is death. It will kill your soul.
THE SOUL’S LIFE WITH GOD
Another great pioneer in this experiment in the early twentieth century was a remarkable man named Frank Laubach. This is what he wrote: “For do you not see that God is trying experiments with human lives? That is why there are so many of them. . . . He has [seven billion] experiments going around the world at this moment. And his question is, ‘How far will this man and that woman allow me to carry this hour?’ ”
How far? I’m not a scientist, but I know that in an experiment, you start by forming a hypothesis. A hypothesis is basically an assumption. It’s saying, “I think this is the way it should be.” Then you test that assumption by putting it to work, often in a laboratory. Your laboratory is your life — that’s where you play out your experiment. When it comes to the soul’s life with God, here are three assumptions to put to the test:
God wants to make every moment of my life glorious with his presence. This is the core of the “with God” life. It’s not just that he wants to be with us, but that he desires to make our lives “glorious.” That’s not a word we use often, but it’s a great word when we think of the effect being with God can have on our souls. It means basically that he wants to fill our souls with beauty, splendor, wonder, and magnificence. It’s what makes people say when they have been with you, “There’s something really different about her. She just seems to shine no matter what.” But this is not something reserved for the saints of the church or super-spiritual people. God desires this for all of us. That’s the whole point of tending to the soul — to fill us so completely with his presence that the brilliance of his love shines through us.
Many Christians expend so much energy and worry trying not to sin. The goal is not to try to sin less. In all your efforts to keep from sinning, what are you focusing on? Sin. God wants you to focus on him. To be with him. “Abide in me.” Just relax and learn to enjoy his presence. Every day is a collection of moments, 86,400 seconds in a day. How many of them can you live with God? Start where you are and grow from there. God wants to be with you every moment.
The psalmist says “I have set the LORD always before me.” Paul says, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” They speak to the need for our souls to be completely and thoroughly with God. But as both of these verses suggest, it does not happen automatically. “Set” and “take captive” are active verbs, implying that you have a role in determining where your soul rests.
I was invited to speak in the chapel of the Naval Academy. It’s an old historic, marble, beautiful building. I look out at the front couple of rows, and there is a bunch of young midshipmen all dressed up in their uniforms. They have devoted their lives to trying to serve our country. In that moment I set my thoughts on God, even breathing a silent prayer: “God, I’m so grateful to be here. I’m so grateful there are young people who commit their lives to that.” In that moment, I chose to set my thoughts on God.
Before I was introduced, the leader of this service announced the person who was going to be speaking at the next navy chapel. I knew that person and allowed myself to think, “I wish that guy wasn’t coming here to speak because he’ll give a better talk than me. People will like his talk more than they’ll like my talk.” This is how quickly we can set our thoughts back on ourselves. But here’s the best part of this experiment of seeing how much of each day we can meet the need of our souls to be with God. As soon as I became aware of my self-centeredness, I surrendered my thoughts back to God and enjoyed his presence again. That’s just how God works with us — he relentlessly pursues us because all he has ever wanted is to be with us. He reaches out to slaves, people in prison, and people like me doing silly, foolish things and says, “Welcome back.”
The best place to start doing life with God is in small moments. I don’t know about you, but when I stand on a bluff overlooking the ocean or watch the sunrise over the peaks of a mountain range, it’s easy to be “with God.” One of my favorite services at our church is Easter Sunday morning, when the place is packed and we sing the great hymns proclaiming the wonder of the resurrection and everyone just beams with adoration for God. No one has to remind me at that moment that God is with me. Unfortunately, those moments are few and far between — every day can’t be Easter. Which is why we need to deliberately look for God in the ordinary moments of everyday life.
When I wake up, I invite God to “Be with me this day.” Then I try to consciously experience him walking next to me. Not in a magnificent worship experience, but in the ordinary and mundane.
My commute can be an ordeal of traffic and delays, or it can be a time to reflect on God. My to-do list for that day can seem overwhelming or deadly boring, or it can remind me that God will be with me in every meeting, every phone call, every deadline. I would like to say I do this well and consistently, but the truth is, sometimes I get in such a rush that I miss noticing and enjoying God’s presence in the moment. It often happens in airports.
As I’ve mentioned before, hurry is one of the major barriers that keeps me from life on the vine. So I have developed all these little tricks to get me through airports as quickly as possible. When I’m getting off a plane, I usually have a computer bag and a suitcase with wheels. The aisles are really narrow, so I hold the computer bag and the suitcase in either hand while I’m going down the aisle. Then when I get into that broader walkway, I put the suitcase down, raise the handle, and put the long strap on the computer bag over the handle so I can wheel the whole thing out easily. Here is the problem: When I’m doing that, if I pull over to the side of the walkway, people behind pass me — and I feel like they’re beating me. Can’t let that happen. So as I raise the handle on my suitcase, I sort of swing it around so that it’s blocking the walkway, preventing some little old lady or sales rep from passing me. I’m not proud of this.
I was executing this blocking move a few weeks ago when I heard this little whisper: “John, let someone pass you. You’re just not that important. I don’t need you to hurry, plus it makes you obnoxious to other people. So today, pull over to the side, take a breath, assemble your little luggage cart, and let someone pass you.”
I have learned to listen to that still small voice. I did as I was told. I stepped to the side, assembled my bags, and watched three people pass me, and it actually felt good. It felt good to not be in such a hurry. It felt even better to recognize that God was with me. In that small moment. As the rest of the world rushed by.
Sometimes a jetway can become a cathedral.
People will look different when I see them with God. People are a huge part of the “with God” life, because we have to live with people. We have to interact with them. How we get along with people says a lot about where our soul rests. When we are living with God, we will see people as God sees them. If I’m aware God is here with me, and God is looking at you at the same moment I’m looking at you, it will change how I respond to you. Instead of seeing you as the annoying server at McDonald’s who messed up my order, I will see you as someone God loved enough to send his Son to die on your behalf. I will see you as a real person who got up dreading going to work, dealing with impatient customers, being on her feet all day. In other words, I will no longer see you as everyone else sees you. This is exactly wh
at Paul is after when he says, “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.” From now on, now that my soul is centered with God in Jesus, I won’t look at people the same way.
Too often, those of us in the Christian community see people the same way the rest of the world sees them. It’s even how we see each other. This is why we feel it necessary to wear masks in church — to present an image that will make them see us the way we want them to see us. It works. One of the most common exchanges between people when they see each other begins with this: “Hi. Good to see you. How are you doing?” And the practiced response is this: “Fine, and you?”
In reality, most of the time things aren’t fine, but we would never let anyone know that because we’re worried about what they will think of us. How tragic. When you think about it, is there a better place to feel free to be who we are than in church, than with other Christians? If I knew that you would see me the way God sees me, I might feel free to admit, “I’m wrestling with sexual sin, with money, with greed, with anger, with impatience, with my spouse, with my kids, with myself.”
Imagine how your church would change if you saw each other through God’s eyes. Imagine how the world would respond if Christians saw people the way God sees them.
In the beginning, God created the perfect home for your soul: a garden of perfection where he could be with you. That is all God has ever wanted. Because of our choices, we separated ourselves from God, but he relentlessly pursued us, offering us a way to return to him and be with him. Because we no longer live in that perfect garden, we sometimes forget that he is there, and we continue to live without him.
Your soul will never find rest unless it finds its home. We find it in the simple daily discipline of asking ourselves, “Is God here in this moment?” If he is not, he can be.