I was on holiday on the north coast of Northern Ireland. It is probably one of my favourite parts of the whole world, but my ability to fully appreciate its crashing waves and jutting headlands was seriously diminished by the fact that on the day before arriving, about £500 had been stolen from my CD stall at a concert. On the day afterwards I don't think it would have made much difference to me whether I was in the slums of Bangladesh or the hanging gardens of Babylon, as the greens were greyed, the sounds were muted and the clouds were darkened.
Nothing about my state of mind changed the reality of what lay before me. The beaches had not shortened, the cliffs had not shrunk, and the sea had not become suddenly polluted. What had changed was my ability to appreciate the reality before me without prejudice. The same applies to our ability to come before the reality of who Jesus is.
Yes, we must bring all our frustrations and dilemmas to Him, but if we are always preoccupied, as we tend to be, are we truly experiencing Him as He really is, or a version tainted by our current foibles and mindset? We may miss something of His beauty that is there to be seen. With our current agenda firmly in the forefront of our minds it is very easy for self-interest to manipulate our image of his character onto the true picture of God.
This is how I know that there is still so much more to know of this Jesus. My pre-occupation with my agenda leaves just enough space to remember "What Would Jesus Do?" in any given situation, but leaves absolutely no room to see or ask the more important question - "What is Jesus doing?"
When I speak to my peers, I realise that this is not just a problem for me. We think "Jesus thoughts", when we pray about the future and when we say thanks for the past, but we have practically no awareness of Jesus in the "now". How can we truly be his co-workers, when we only spot what he has been up to a day or so later, after the dust settles.
Right now, ask yourself the question - what is Jesus doing in my life, in this situation, in this town, or in this family right now? Because I can assure you of one thing. He is always doing something. The question is whether or not our preoccupied minds leave us the space to see it.
When I wake up, I am already thinking through my "to-do list" for the day. That is reality. That is "sorting things" and calling people, and having meetings. The problem is that often this is my only reality. The great French philosopher Descartes said "I think, therefore I am". In other words, we know that we are real because we can feel ourselves thinking. I am sure that one of the main reasons that as a society we seem to care little for anyone other than ourselves is that to us, everyone else is genuinely less real, as we simply cannot "hear" their thinking. Can you hear Jesus "thinking"? Is there space in your head to be filled with thoughts other than your own? Is he slightly less real than "reality"?
