You will be told exactly what God wills for you. . .

And the rest of the above line in one of my favorite books is: “each time there is a choice to make.”  Perhaps uncertainty doesn’t ever trouble you.  And I am relieved to say it troubles me very little any more, but it used to haunt me.  I just knew there had to be only one way to do every thing and it was up to me to figure it out.  Alone.  I hadn’t yet made a friend of God.

The idea that God could be one’s friend seemed a bit childish in fact.  It reminded me of my Sunday School teacher’s words when I was in grade school.  Surely my level of sophistication entitled me to something more than being “God’s friend.”  How silly this all sounds now when I write it.

In the mid-seventies, in my search for God,  I read The Magical Mystical Bear by Matthew Fox.  At that time I didn’t know how to pray.  Nor did I believe in much of any thing but I knew I wanted to believe.  In the book Fox said talk to God like you would talk to any friend.  I can remember feeling a bit foolish when I began the process and I certainly didn’t talk out loud or tell any one I was doing it; but I did experience some relief from the near constant anxiety I carried.  So I kept talking to God, on the sly.

At about the same time my mother-in-law, who was very perceptive, gave me a tiny little book written a couple centuries earlier by Brother Lawrence.  It’s title was Practicing the Presence.  And in fact, that’s what the entire book was about.  Whether Brother Lawrence was doing dishes or walking in the gardens at the monastery, he was in silent communion with God.  Every minute.  And he spoke about the peace that filled his heart.  I wanted what he spoke of.  I wanted that silent mind and the awareness that God was a constant presence.

I wasn’t to get that constancy for many years but I can claim to feel it much of the time now.  What changed?  I think primarily my willingness to still my mind, releasing the chatter that always stood in the way of God’s quiet voice. When I truly opened my mind and heart to the voice of God I heard it.  Generally not in actual words but I could feel the right choice to make, the right words to say, the right actions to take.  God had become my guide.  My friend, and all I had to do was ask.

We will be told exactly what we need to do.  Always.  Isn’t that an amazing idea?  We are promised this.  Do you ask the question and then listen for the answer?  If you haven’t done so lately, why not make today the day to begin again.  It will change your life.