You can never have too much beach.

Recently I spent time at the beach–one of my favorite places. It was a day the weather couldn’t make up it’s mind–rain or sun? How about both?

All afternoon  a rainbow keeps watch. At times it’s vivid, a bright spectrum of color stamped across the sky. Other moments,  muted like a watercolor, it fades to a subtle hint of a promise long ago given.

Even just a glimpse of the rainbow is enough to know it’s present. Clouds drift by or stack on top, but the rainbow lingers all afternoon.

A persistent rainbow.

A persistent promise.

Reading in my chair with toes in the water, I forget about the rainbow. Caught up in the unfolding story of my book, I look up with surprise to see it is still there.

Searching the sand for shells, head bent under the breeze, I catch the light out of the corner of my eye and remember.

Still there.

Late in the afternoon as the sun’s golden glow signals the approach of evening, I understand.

I really see it.

Today I have lived in the light of God’s presence colorful against the sky. Gently God turns my thoughts to the promise of the rainbow–the care of faithfulness.

This is how I want to live each day, glimpsing reminders throughout the day of the faithfulness and presence of God.  A consistent, quiet rhythm of awareness and activity. An orientation of the heart, I want to live every moment in the joyful awareness of God’s presence.

Live a praying life rather than a life that prays.

What if sacred and secular blends into wholeness, a constant living faith, reflecting the light of God’s grace? Can I learn to let the activity of my day take on a rhythm of prayer?

A continuous conversation always with God, sometimes with others.

For isn’t God the “constant, gracious listener to our every thought,” and doesn’t prayer begin “when we bring what we most naturally think about before God”? (The Me I Want to Be, p. 135.)

This is the light I want to live in everyday, not just a summer afternoon at the beach. Rejoice in the awareness of grace that saturates everything, not just the highlights and low points.

How will my thoughts and attitudes be different if I live every moment in the light of the rainbow, steeped in God’s faithfulness that calms the heart and empowers the soul?

Living in light of the rainbow of faith

Practicing the presence of God is the key to prayer that never ceases in a life lived open with God. What wonder to look up at any moment of uncertainty or question, any whiff of discomfort, and see the vibrancy of His glory painted across a life.

Remembering God’s power and care frees me from nervous muttering.

Thomas Kelly (1893-1941), wrote much on the integration of faith and activity. Rather than an alternation between faith and work, Kelly wrote of simultaneity that lets worship inhabit “every moment, living prayer, the continuous current and background of all moments of life.”

He continued,“For God himself works in our souls, in their deepest depths, taking increasing control as we are progressively willing to be prepared for his wonder.” (Devotional Classics, p. 176.)

Isn’t God  displaying His creative power to anyone watching? Isn’t He constantly proclaiming His glory in and out of this world He has spoken into existence?

Indeed, it is a blessing and sweet mercy to live in light of God’s rainbow.

Tweetables:

Live a praying life rather than a life that prays.

How will my thoughts and attitudes be different if I live every moment in the light of faith?