Waking Up to God

I have just finished reading Barbara Brown Taylor's An Altar in the World which contains lots of useful insights as she seeks to develop an everyday spirituality that is rooted in the ordinary world. She identifies twelve different 'practices', each helping us to see and experience God in the world around us.

The first chapter talks of 'the practice of waking up to God' and takes the theme of vision. Taylor points out that we are likely to find God wherever we find ourselves and that we certainly experience God in unexpected places and unexpected ways.

We don't always find God where we expect. "People encounter God under shady oak trees, on riverbanks, at the tops of mountains, and in long stretches of barren wilderness. God shows up in whirlwinds, starry skies, burning bushes, and perfect strangers. When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay.". " People can learn as much about the ways of God from business deals gone bad or sparrows falling to the ground as they can from reciting the books of the Bible in order."

How encouraging to note that God engages with us where we are. May we indeed wake up to that fact!