Staying Presence-Focused
In my previous post, I outlined the value of learning to maintain ongoing connectivity with the Lord throughout the day, and provided some simple how-to’s to grow in this practice. In addition to those things, there are some practical strategies I’ve discovered to help protect that awareness of God’s presence in the midst of busy and distracting surroundings.
Boundaries
As simple as this sounds, I’ve found that so much of staying Presence-focused comes down to exercising proper boundaries – especially in the beginning stages of learning to steward this. The specifics of what this looks like will vary from person to person and will require some self-knowledge to figure out – and they may even change over time as a person’s seasons shift and change. But for myself, these are some of the boundaries I’ve found helpful to implement along the way:
Social media. While I don’t have a problem with social media in general, I find that, as someone who is naturally empathetic, other people’s experiences tend to pull me into a reality other than my own and introduce extra emotions for me to sort through. This is especially challenging for me during times when my own stress is heightened or when there are particularly difficult or painful situations that are taking place in the world or in the lives of people around me. I have to be careful in this area, because being pulled into someone else’s reality can easily cause me to lose connection with my own life experiences and with God – which doesn’t help any of us at the end of the day. So if I feel myself being pulled out of my own reality or losing my connection with the Lord, I often choose to fast from social media for a time.
Entertainment. Similar to the effect that social media can have on me, I find that watching TV or movies or any form of entertainment can sometimes be tricky, because it pulls me into a reality other than my own or the supernatural realities of heaven. I’m not opposed to this, generally speaking – after all, that’s what a good story ought to do. But I found that as I was figuring out how to remain connected to the Lord’s presence, I simply wasn’t able to flip back and forth between these different realities without dropping my connection with the Lord. I needed to learn how to stay grounded in Him and the realities of His Kingdom, so for me, it was necessary to limit my entertainment intake during this process. I’ve since learned how to maintain my awareness of the Lord even during these brief escapes, but it was definitely something I had to work toward over time.
Multi-tasking. This was a much tougher decision, and not one that everyone will be in a position to make, but along the way, I realized that in order to maintain my awareness of the Lord, I needed to give up multi-tasking. I know this is a skill that is highly valued in our society, and I am actually quite good at it if I choose to be. But the unfortunate truth is, multi-tasking causes me a great deal of anxiety (robbing that peace that come from God’s presence), and it splits my attention in too many directions to be able to hold onto my connection with the Lord. So as much as it pained me to do so, I decided I needed to find a way to live my life without it. It wasn’t convenient, and it definitely required sacrifice, but this is one boundary that I’ve continued to enforce for myself to this day because it makes such a tremendous difference for me.
Radical Mindfulness
In tandem with placing limits on certain areas of my life, I also needed to expand in another area: practicing radical mindfulness of my world and my connection with God.
I’m the sort of person who is highly sensitized to the atmosphere, details, and emotions in the environment around me. I am easily overstimulated, so things as simple as running errands can quickly overwhelm me. My solution has always been to put on blinders to my environment and focus on completing the task at hand most quickly and efficiently. This, unfortunately, also tends to numb me to my awareness of the Lord’s presence. Due to the way I’m wired, I’m unable to be selective about what I open my senses to – I either take everything in, or none of it.
I’ve since learned that, rather than blocking everything out, I can actually operate much more powerfully by taking things a bit slower, removing my blinders, and simply observing what’s going on around me without giving it permission to influence my own emotions or experience.
For example, rather than speed-walking through Walmart and avoiding every human I pass as I complete my errand and return to the sanctuary of my car, I can instead move more slowly, taking things in, noticing the people around me… and then allow myself to keep walking and leave the buzz of activity behind me, without carrying the burden of the emotions I sense others experiencing. This practice brings a great deal more freedom for me, and it then enables me to remain mindful of the Lord’s presence, keeping one ear on heaven as I move through a space. From this posture, He can then catch my attention with a wave of compassion or delight, or prompt me to reach out to someone and bless them as I walk past.
This sort of mindfulness has been key for me in developing my awareness of God’s presence, because when I remain aware of my surroundings, I remain aware of the Lord present in those surroundings – my senses and faculties remain engaged, both toward the natural and the spiritual. This enables me to carry His presence with me into ALL circumstances – even the turbulent ones, where He is often needed the most.
The Full Picture
So, to re-cap… Remaining focused on God’s presence is something that can be learned and practiced, and it grows in ease over time. A simple process for doing this is to:
establish an initial connection with the Lord (in other words, an awareness of His presence)
protect that connection (utilizing helpful boundaries and mindfulness)
return to it to get it back when it gets lost (by repenting and re-connecting with the Lord)
Stewarding our focus in this way will help anchor us in the unseen realities of heaven – which is primarily characterized by the ceaseless, all-encompassing presence of God. This is the foundation that allows us to start exercising our heavenly citizenship in our day-to-day lives; this is what enables us to live from heaven towards earth.
And with that as our starting point, all things are possible.
. . .