Experience Jesus. Really: Finding Refuge, Strength, and Wonder through Everyday Encounters with God

The ordinary mystic, the friend of Jesus . . . Enjoys the palpable presence of Jesus, their Papa, and the Holy Spirit.ii Hears the voice of God in daily living. Is able to enter into an inner communion with Jesus, who dwells in their heart. Draws their life from God. Is not surprised by things like miracles breaking into everyday life.

So when the fifteenth-century mystic Thomas à Kempis offers the following invitation, he is speaking of an experience that is completely accessible to every human being: WE ARE ASSURED THAT CHRIST NOW LIVES WITHIN US, WHICH MEANS THAT WE CAN ALSO EXPERIENCE HIS PRESENCE DEEP WITHIN OUR OWN BEING.

Paul writes that in God “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). We are surrounded with the presence of God. We swim in it every day, which fits the “amphibious” idea of human nature and experience.

When we understand mysticism as simply the daily experience of God and his Kingdom, we can say that mysticism is the normal Christian life.

“Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, opening to the sun above,” as Henry van Dyke wrote in a lovely, poetic phrase.

Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendour! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.2 There is something wonderfully childlike about this; they have one foot in nature and the other in the unseen part of God’s

They knew nothing of how sunlight on our skin produces vitamin D in our cells (do you really?). But they bared their skin to the sun anyways and rejoiced in God for his goodness. So Patrick prayed, I arise today Through the strength of heaven: Light of sun, Radiance of moon, Splendor of fire.1

Here he is trying to rescue us from the barrier to experiencing God and his Kingdom that has been formed within us by the time we reach adulthood—the weary, skeptical cynicism . . . the guardedness. Jesus says, “I have so much to show you, so much to offer you. But you’re going to have to let go the cynicism, skepticism, and pragmatism. Open yourse

If you tell a child, “We’re going to the beach tomorrow!” their immediate response is not, “Yeah . . . maybe. We’ll see. Did you even check the weather?” That’s the adult response.