My own Narnia.

This past weekend I was in a class on 'Spiritual Classics'. It involved reading books like Confessions (St. Augustine), Dark Night if the Soul (St. John of the Cross), Practice the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence), etc. The point of the class was to help us understand that there are many ways in which people perceive and interact with God, and within the realm of counseling it is important be be aware of their perceptions in order to meet clients where they are at.

During the part of class where we participated in contemplative prayer I saw myself in my 'happy place'; it's actually in the woods in Portland, OR along the gorge. I was walking through a forest (kind of like Narnia), and then I stopped at the shore of a massive lake. On the other side of the lake was a large granite mountain. I was looking for God and I started to call out to him as though he were on the top of the mountain. I was going on and on until I felt like God wasn't paying attention. I yelled out, "Where are you!?"

When I questioned God's presence I heard a voice behind me. It wasn't a yell but it wasn't a whisper. It sounded like my voice but way more calm and confident. The voice said, "hey... Kevin." I turned around and there God was. I can't give you a visual description of God, but I was sure that he was there. I said to God, "I thought you where on top of the mountain." He just looked at me with a facial expression that seemed to say that he understood but still gave no explanation. "Where have you been?", I asked him (with a hint of arrogance). He replied, "I've been here the whole time." I asked, "how come I didn't see you there?" He looked at me with a kind eye and said, "you weren't looking."

Nothing was said after that, we just kind hung out for while. It's funny to see that God can use our imagination as a conduit to communicating with us. My prayer is now that I learn to notice that God is always near, especially when he's right behind me.