One day at school I dreamed a dream. I dreamed I was a professional footballer, leading my team out for the Cup Final and scoring the winning goal. My mental reverie, however, came to an abrupt end when the teacher’s voice broke into my consciousness, loud, insistent, and challenging.
“HORSFALL LAD, SIT UP STRAIGHT AND PAY ATTENTION!”
For a moment I was in shock, rendered speechless by this public humiliation. Somehow I managed to stammer a muted response of “Sorry sir”, and with great effort began to re-focus my mind, trying to get to grips with the lesson.
All of us are somewhere along the “attentive to God” spectrum: at one end totally unaware of God; at the other end rapturously engaged with him. Where we are will vary from time to time.
What we must bear in mind is that attentiveness to God is not simply the privilege of a chosen few, and it is not beyond the grasp of any who desire a closer walk with God. Neither need our experience of God be confined to Sunday services or midweek gatherings, nor limited to sacred buildings or holy places. God is to be found everywhere, and the world around us is bursting with his presence if we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and minds to understand his ways.
He is present in our homes and workplaces, in shopping malls and parks, on lonely beaches and crowded sidewalks, in bustling cities and isolated hamlets, on mountain tops and in traffic jams, in quiet pubs and noisy restaurants, in high-rise blocks and in makeshift shelters …. In the ordinariness of our ordinary lives we too can find God and every child of his can live in a growing intimacy with the heavenly Father.
We will need to deal with the root causes of our inattentiveness and be willing to step aside from the demands of daily life occasionally so that we do not miss the presence of God. We will need to grow in spiritual insight and the ability to hear the voice of God, as well as our understanding of God’s ways.
One quality we will need to develop is that of perseverance, the ability to keep pursuing our goal of greater attentiveness. Sometimes it will seem relatively easy to be aware of God; at other times we will feel all over the place and have no spiritual hunger whatsoever. Don’t be alarmed if that is your experience sometimes, for that is quite normal.
There is a natural ebb and flow to the spiritual life, and no one lives continually on the mountain top. We need a steady persistence to keep practising the disciplines that will help us draw near to God, and over time we will discover that our attentiveness has grown and our awareness deepened. Turning to God and recognising his presence will become something we do instinctively the longer we pursue this goal.
One thing is certain. We will not, however, be able to achieve our goal without God’s help, and that is why I want to finish with a prayer, for myself and for my readers. Like Jacob, we will need the grace of divine disclosure.
Prayer for Attentiveness
Lord you know my hunger for you
and I know your desire to make yourself known to me.
Grant me therefore, gracious Lord,
eyes to see,
ears to hear,
and a mind to understand your ways.
Cause me to become more aware of you
and more fully attentive to your Presence.
Help me to notice your activity in the world around me
and be responsive to the nudges of your Spirit.
Above all, let my ordinary, little life
be full of you,
for your glory
AMEN.
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Excerpted from Tony Horsfall, Attentive to God: Being Aware of God's Presence in Daily Life (Graceworks, 2019). This essay has been edited for clarity.