Available vs. Fully Present

I wrote this last month after a situation at work provided much food for thought.....

Available vs. Fully Present
What's the Difference?

We are encouraged as believers to be available for God to use. Many times we ARE available. But frequently, we are available for the things we expect God to bring along our path. Sometimes, even when we are available, we may miss an opportunity.

Fully present, however, means being 100% in the moment -- with the person, doing the task that God has brought across your path. It means that interruptions become vehicles that God can use to reveal Himself and His plan to use us for His glory.

When we are fully present, our heart, mind and eyes are open to see God in the mundane. We can see Him in the interruptions, and we can see Him in the midst of the crisis. When we are fully present we are blessed to see and experience God in ways that we miss when we are blinded by our idea of what He wants, and how He will use us.

Being fully present also implies that our hearts are in tune -- in constant communication -- with God's. It is through this that we are able to discern which interruptions need to be resisted, as they are truly distractions, and which ones are God, calling us to experience something different and uniquely special in the midst of the ordinary (or even a time of crisis).

Being available to God is vital to being used of God. But let's go one step further and be fully present. Allow Him to open our eyes to everything, big and small, that He brings across our path. In this way, He is able to redeem the mundane and we are able to experience a whole new level of being part of His work.