The Person and Presence

My dear friend and teacher stood among a group of my friends and me.

We sat listening, as he quietly drew us in.

Was it the words he spoke? Yes.

But really, it was more than the words.

It was the Essence of the message behind these words.

It was the person behind the words.

It was the presence behind the word.

The teacher had been discussing a different way to look at living and a different way to live.

There was a familiar sense of “what would Jesus do?” in the lesson, but THIS.

This felt very different, very beyond, and very right.

The words that struck me so deeply were these: that we are to…

“...be the person and presence of Jesus.”

He spoke those words, and there was a pause of about twenty years. As I sat in church that day listening to Pastor David Hayes speak, I had no idea these words would continue to echo in my mind and heart so many years later. It was as if the Essence of the Spirit knew I needed to hold on to these words so I could draw upon them later when I was ready. The Essence of the Spirit knew I had caught a glimpse of something special. The Essence of Spirit knew I would return to the words behind the words over and over again in my searching and seeking.

And here I am twenty years later, still considering these same words from my dear friend and teacher.

I believe this Essence that was behind the words in that lesson is the Essence of Jesus, the man and

the Essence of Jesus the Christ. It is certainly worth considering that once popular phrase, “what would Jesus do?” but for a moment, let’s consider Jesus’s words,

“I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

Let’s consider the possibility that we don’t have to wonder or think “what would Jesus do?”

Let’s imagine we can trust Jesus’s words that we can actually BE the person and presence.

Let’s imagine we can actually tap into this Essence that made Jesus, Jesus. Look at those words again.

“I am in the Father, you are in me, and I am in you.”

THAT is the Essence that Jesus carried, and THAT is the Essence of the Father.

So with that in mind, dare we imagine that we can tap into this same Divine Essence and soak up this same Divine Presence? Dare we imagine that we can BE this Person in our shared humanity?

After all of this considering and imagining and daring, I am reminded of another reminding from my same dear friend, David quoting the Apostle Paul who encourages us to

“...be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

And that’s not all. Look at the words that follow.

“Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is -

his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

WOW! That is a powerful statement Paul makes there.

Give yourself twenty years or so to let THAT sink in.

For me, over these past twenty years or so, my mind has been and continues to be transformed.

Those words spoken so long ago are still renewing my mind. I cannot help but think that the Essence that is the person and presence of Jesus is giving me peace to simply be. I’m finding peace that comes from years of testing and approving God’s will in my life. As I am continually being transformed and renewed day by day, I am reminded that I still live in this fragile “jar of clay” that is my life.

I continue to wrestle with the paradox of being and doing and how we, as Jesus followers, can best hold this dynamic tension in peace and in stillness as we each live as a person and presence of this Jesus we so love and who so loved us.

Now I ask you to consider what it might look like truly BEing the person and truly BEing the presence. May you and it seek to truly immerse ourselves in this Essence that my dear friend and teacher spoke of twenty years ago. That Essense and that made Jesus, Jesus.