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I was recently listing to the podcast of an Eastern Orthodox fellow in which he was discussing this idea of 'everyday life'. As he sees it, there is a problem in our western conception of the location of God: we're down here and God is up there. Following this logic, there is a separation between where we live and where God 'lives'. Though most Christians I know would not wholly agree with this concept in principle, I think that, for the most part, this a fair assessment of the way in which we tend to live our lives. That is to say: there are the more religious/spiritual aspects of life, which usually take place on a Sunday or at certain times throughout the week, and there are the everyday events, the everyday life, which comprised the bulk of 'real life'.
“Our entire existence, including those every day demands and activities that we see as being so removed from Him, all happen within the life of God. As we pray, he is everywhere present and fills all things. The Holy Trinity did not create us out of some void that exists at a distance from its own divine life; there can be no such void, for God is infinite. Or let me put it this way: His presence fills all, because the ‘all’ is Him. So, the mystical truth is that our whole existence goes on inside the life of the God who is its source. As Saint Paul tells us, “it is in God that we life and move and have our being” (Acts 17.28). That means our whole ‘we’re here and God’s there’ picture is erroneous. This image that we create of our ‘real world’ - the world of our job’s, our relationships, our trips to the grocery store or sports arena, golfing with the boss, parent teacher conferences, romantic dinners, picnicking at the beach - this image that we have of these as something that contrasts with the life of God is totally false. In every moment God is holding the fabric of our universe together; every breath we take, every beat of our hearts is not just a gift from Him – it is a movement of His own life. He is our substance. Everything in our world is made up of His energies. We are constantly surrounded by, and enveloped in, God." - Matthew Gallatin
When I heard this, I realized that it was quite similar to something which I have been trying to express regarding the nature of life. I felt that last bit was quite a beautiful thought: "every breath we take, every beat of our hearts is not just a gift from Him - it is a movement of His own life".
How would our lives be different if we could only live as thought this is true? I firmly believe that it is; and I find myself on a path in which God is seen in the entirety of life and the whole of the created order. The most mundane of our daily tasks is "a movement in [God's] own life" - what a thought.
What a beautiful thought.. no, what a beautiful reality.
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