McMahon Life

As I write this our home is home to Michelle and I, Brandon (till Sunday night), and David (for the next week, maybe more).  It has been a bit of an adjustment having others now living with us, actually beginning to figure out what it means to live as a community with those that live with you.  It is so easy for four individuals to live under the same roof and live completely individual lives.  It’s far easier than living lives that are shared together.  But intentional community is something that Michelle and I are committed to.
What does it mean to share life together?  How do we foster an environment where we have time for each other as well as for all else that is going on?  Maybe we have to eliminate some things (I’m still not very good at this!).

I think it’s been over a week now since I last posted anything.  Probably the longest stretch without a post yet – for fairly good reason.   July has been an incredibly hectic month (but a great month).  We are just finishing our first week of having one of our youth from Mill Creek Foursquare live with us, and looking forward to another (or two, or…?).

Brandon has been with us since last Sunday and it has been quite a wonderful experience.   We opened up our home to our students from MC4 with the hope of creating a context for relationship to be built between them and the people in our community here at the Bluffs.  I think my favorite moment was coming home on Tuesday after being gone for a few hours to Brandon’s report that at one point he had sixteen kids in our home playing LEGOs and hanging out.  Go Brandon!  He has genuinely begun some friendships with our neighborhood kids, and it is such a beautiful thing to watch him loving those around him for Jesus!  We’ve had numerous incredible conversations about what it means to be a individual raised in privilege, what our responsibilities are to those around us (and those whom our privilege have disabled from actually being around  us).

This week has seen our first outdoor movie night – we borrowed a projector from church and Brandon set it up outside our home on the opposing wall and we gathered fifteen or more kids to watch Kung Fu Panda.  I think we’ll do it more often once it gets dark a bit earlier (9:15 is a bit late to begin a movie!).

This week also saw our first spontaneous community potluck, something I have been wanting for quite a while.  Jeff and Mike joined Michelle, Brandon, and I playing basketball, and afterword invited us in for spaghetti.  Since we had already started dinner (defrosting some salmon someone gave us, and making a salad), we suggested that they bring their spaghetti, and we bring our salmon, hot dogs, and salad, and we eat it together at the picnic table.  We spent the next hour or so chatting with (finally!) some of our adult neighbors.  It’s a start.  Hopefully meals like this will become far more consistent.

We’ve seen an increase in older students hanging out with us ever since Brandon got here (you don’t hear any complaints from us!).  We have found them to be willing teachers of Spanish and of culture.  I have begun learning about the gang culture that is quite prevalent here on Casino Road.  We will see where God leads.

Not the most graciously worded of blogs, but I wanted to take a moment and let you all know what has been going on this past week – and there’s quite a bit as you can tell!  Pray for us as we discover what community means, as we pray that you grow as the people of God, living in a way that provides those caught in the brokenness of our world an alternative to what they know!

Father, teach me to rest,
teach me to rest in your presence,
to rest in relationship, to rest in love.

Without rest, joy finds shallow ground in which to root,
quickly fleeing as moments of uncertainty approach.
In your presence there is peace, there is joy – even when all is unknown but you.
For you, you are enough.

Perhaps the greatest enemy to peace, to practicing the presence of God (as Brother Lawrence wrote), is the speed of life.  To practice God’s presence is to constantly bring oneself back into 1) recognition of God’s presence with you, 2) communication with the Spirit of God, and 3) contentment with being with God, and with God alone.

The first element is the recognition that God is beside, within, and all around. There  is no need to seek far and wide to find God, but simply recognize that God is already present.  The second element is creating a constant dialogue with the Spirit of God.  Since God is always present (element #1), then God is always available for communication.  His presence cannot be experienced without communication, and this can be accomplished from the location of the moment – nothing special, no sanctuary, is necessary.

Now, the third element is less than straight-forward.  It means first: contentment with God, and God only.  There can be nothing else that brings peace and contentment but God, and it can only be in his presence where it is found.  Therefore we must resist the urge to add, to pair the presence ofGod with anything: even acting on the behalf of God.  This doesn’t free us to only abstractly pursue God in thought alone, but the contentment of being only with God, of simply being in her presence, msut be enough.

The second meaning of this third element (to be content with God, and God alone), is that it requires being with God, which is the essence of the Practice altogether.  This may seem circulatory, but key to learning the Practice of the Presence of God is being content to be with God.  Thinking of God is not the same (that is element #1); Praying is not the same (element #2).  Being with God is found in the practices of solitude and silence.  By practicing outer solitude and silence, we may develop an inner place of solitude and silence that clings to the very being of our souls.  This then facilitates the Practice of the Presence of God that Brother Lawrence, Henri Nouwen, and others wrote about.

Perhaps the greatest enemy to peace, to practicing the presence of God is the speed of life.  The more I strive to Practice the Presence of God in my life, the more I recognize the contradiction that the way of life that our culture encourages provides against the Practice.  It is near impossible – I would argue actually impossible – to Practice the Presence of God with any discipline and consistency within the break-neck pace of life that the culture around us lives (and that we, the church, almost completely live as well).  To Practice the Presence of God requires a break from the practice of the presence of work, relationship, play, or whatever else fills the day.  This is not to criticize the presence of work, friendship, liesure, or exercise in life, but to recognize that when those become the focus of life, we practice their presence instead of the presence of God.

At the end of the day,
when boards are wiped clean and tally marks erased,
when sweat has dried and stains removed,
All that really matters in the depth of the heart
is the time spent in your presence, Oh God,
is the time spent worshiping you and basking in your glory.

Of all the uncertainties in this world, this I know:
you love me, you give me joy and live, and you walk with me in the midst of everything.