It would be an understatement to say that we live in a distracted age. Our culture is designed to keep us endlessly distracted and entertained. If we spent time in deeper reflection, we would start to see the diabolical dimension of a world filled with seemingly endless distractions to fill our time.
From our computers to our smartphones to the world outside of our door, each day forces are at work—the world, the flesh, and the devil—that seek to lure us away from God. These distractions keep us from entering His presence in prayer. They leave us harried, hurried, and fragmented. The Lord wants to heal and make us whole by drawing us into His presence.
The Key to Overcoming Distraction
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection in his classic work, The Practice of the Presence of God, discovered the key to overcoming distraction and a divided heart and mind. He learned to live in the presence of God in every moment of every day. St. Paul’s call “to pray without ceasing” was the essence of Brother Lawrence’s spiritual life. While he practiced mental prayer and had dedicated periods of silent prayer throughout the day, he learned how to dwell in God’s presence even while he labored.
He reminds us that we are called to intimate union with the Most Holy Trinity, which we should seek to foster at all times. He states:
The holiest, most ordinary, and most necessary practice of the spiritual life is that of the presence of God. It is to take delight in and become accustomed to his divine company, speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with him all the time, at every moment, without rule or measure, especially in times of temptation, suffering, aridity, weariness, even infidelity and sin.
Brother Lawrence is very clear that the most important aspect of our spiritual life is to live constantly in the presence of God. Living in the presence of God gives direction, meaning, and the strength we need to overcome sin and obstacles to our lives. When we intentionally seek to live in this manner, we stop allowing the winds of distraction and entertainment to trap us in a whirlwind that keeps us from drawing closer to God.
This call is not a complicated one to enact. There is not a set formula we need to follow. We simply need to commit with God’s help to conversing with Him throughout our day. Brother Lawrence explains:
We must continually apply ourselves so that all our actions, without exception, become a kind of brief conversation with God, not in a contrived manner but coming from the purity and simplicity of our hearts.
This manner of living is very similar to St. Therese’s Little Way. All actions should be given to God in love. Having brief conversations with God through out the day as we go about our tasks fosters a deeper love and devotion to Him. This is analogous to a husband and wife who communicate with one another throughout the day in order to stay close to one another. Our relationship with the Lord withers and fades when we fail to think of Him or talk to Him throughout the day. These simple conversations enkindle the fires of love for God within us.
Living Intentionally in the Presence of God
Doing so in an age as distracted and noisy as the one we live in requires tremendous discipline. We have to choose to raise our hearts and minds to God constantly rather than doom scrolling for hours on end. Living deliberately in the presence of God also requires that we slow down and focus on both Him and the tasks we have been given. We cannot remain fully in His presence when we are racing throughout the day. Brother Lawrence teaches:
We must perform all our actions carefully and deliberately, not impulsively or hurriedly, for such would characterize a distracted mind. We must work gently and livingly with God, asking him to accept our work, and by this continual attention to God we will crush the head of the devil and force weapons from his hands.
To truly live in this manner, we must disengage and refuse to live the constant rat race and frenetic pace of our culture. This is easier said than done. We have countless responsibilities and distractions fragmenting us each day. It requires great effort and dependence upon God. We have to surrender our weakness and powerlessness in the face of so many competing forces to the Lord in order to be ready to walk this path fully.
If there is one spiritual lesson our current age needs, it is to put aside distractions to dwell moment-by-moment in the presence of God. As Brother Lawrence says, this will be a means by which God crushes the devil who is trying to keep us constantly distracted. If we truly understood the spiritual battle at work, we would begin to see that the enemy and our own egos leave us glued to screens from which we do not want to look away. We are trapped in addiction. How can we not see the spiritual implications of looking down all the time? We seldom gaze heavenward physically and spiritually.
The key to becoming whole, to feeling less divided, fragmented, and overwhelmed, and to seeing Christ, is to choose to live intentionally. We must ask the Lord to teach us how to live in His presence, seeing Him gazing at us in every single moment of our day. The Lord is not some distant force above us. He is closer to us than the air we breathe. He dwells within us by virtue of our baptism. He is holding all of Creation in existence out of love. We can start in this moment by raising our heart and mind to Him and then step-by-step begin conversing with Him throughout the day with the simplicity of a child.
Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash
