The Presence of Christ

Happy New Year, my dearest LR friends!  We've taken a bit of a hiatus through the Christmas season but we're back and ready for a wonderful new year.  

Our pastor spoke yesterday about something that has been central in my thoughts since I heard him.  "We," he said, "are the presence of Christ in this world."  We spend so much time seeking what God is calling us to do or trying to find Christ in our daily lives and jobs and classes that we miss the fact that God has placed us in our individual situations to be a living vessel of His great love.  We wonder why God gives us certain friends, or jobs that we're not exactly passionate about, or schoolwork and papers and exams that we're definitely not passionate about.  And yet, at the center of it all, in God's great wisdom, He has placed us where we are to be the presence of Christ.  

Wow- what a tall task.  I think of myself, such a sinner, and wonder at the Lord's decision to place me in an office to be a walking advertisement for Him.  It definitely makes me consider every action, every word, everything I do.  What an awesome opportunity for me to get to serve Him in this way!  My Father has placed me there to show my coworkers how great my God is and how much He loves each of them.

I challenge you this week, whether in your office, your precept, your eating club, or even among your friends or roommates, to remember that you are the presence of Christ.  How does that affect the way you live your life?

I leave you with wise words from Thomis A Kempis in The Imitation of Christ, which our very own Rach got me hooked on:

"He who follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord. By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.

The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ.