My All for God's All

I've been influenced by some of Christianity's greatest thinkers--C.S. Lewis, John Bunyan, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Richard Foster, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, Dallas Willard, Brother Lawrence...just to name a few. You might say that I'm DUI...Developing Under their Influence. Obviously, there's no substitution for the perfect Word of God, but I'm so grateful for the impact godly men and women have had in my life...even those who went to heaven long before I was ever born.

I've chosen to call my blog "My All for God's All," based on a statement Brother Lawrence made, as recorded in the Christian classic The Practice of the Presence of God. That book records the thoughts and habits of Nicholas Herman (later known as Brother Lawrence), who determined in his own life to be an experiment of living every moment in "an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God." In other words, Brother Lawrence desired to remain always in the "actual presence of God." That desire has captured my heart, too...

I hope for my blog to challenge readers to connect real faith to real life in the real world. I expect that I'll write about most anything (well...not anything, but you get the idea) and seek to find some spiritual truth along the way.

Let me leave you today with this parting thought from Brother Lawrence:

I imagine myself as the most wretched of all, full of sores and sins, and one who has committed all sorts of crimes against his king. Feeling a deep sorrow, I confess to him all of my sins, I ask his forgiveness, and I abandon myself into his hands so that he may do with me what he pleases.

This king, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastening me, embraces me with love, invites me to feast at his table, serves me with his own hands, and gives me the key to his treasures. He converses with me, and takes delight in me, and treats me as if I were his favorite. This is how I imagine myself from time to time in his holy presence.

I'm seeking to give "my all for God's all"...