Here in the rehab house we’re blessed to have a weekly prayer circle hosted by two local pastors, one an ordained minister and the other an elder in his church. Professionally, both are interstate truck drivers, so we’re fortunate if they’re in town, but when not, we DIY the readings ourselves.

Happily for us Brother George (the elder) led our most recent gathering in an especially rousing service, even had us up clapping and praising ‘Hallelulah!’ — no small feat for a room full of jaded recovering addicts.

In his testimony, Brother George hit a theological home run with his insights on the active and direct connection between a living God and His believers. George further inspired our group by referring to his own aura of faith simply as ‘The Prayer Life,’ which he defined as keeping an open, flowing and on-going dialogue with God.

Sounds easy, right? For some of us, maybe easier said than done. If so, try this: replace the word ‘Prayer’ with ‘Present’ and see if that clicks through. Thus, to remain in constant touch with God is just another way of being present in the universe He created.

In Buddhist thought, the concept of being ever-present in earthly life is one path to enlightenment. Think of it as yet another non-coincidence (remember, in God’s world they don’t exist) that Brother George’s divine experience weaves right into our thread of mindful awareness. The only difference is that for the Buddhist, pansophy advances inner peace, while in Christianity, those who have truly come to know God attain a perpetual state of loving exultation.

To wit: we had a gent here in the house who recently graduated the program and moved on to become a recovery counselor. Often he would say, “the present is a gift, that’s why they call it a ‘present’. In awe of this simple wisdom, I once asked him the source of this timeless verse, to which he blithely replied, “Kung Fu Panda.”

That evening, dog-eared Bible in hand, Brother George led us further on to Ephesians 2:10, which reads: “For we are His workmanship, created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

For further proof of this, let’s again invoke C.S. Lewis, who goes on to clarify that God made man — in his own resemblance, yes, but with the essential and significant difference that man is imperfect and fallible in his proclivity to sin. Proverbs 20:24 says: “If a man’s steps are of the Lord, how then can a man understand his own way?”

So man is not necessarily begotten by the Lord, because only God could beget God incarnate, aka Jesus Christ, his true and acknowledged son. Professor Lewis serves us his ordinance this way; think of a statue as created in man’s image, and man created in God’s image; the primary anomaly here being that man is alive, and a statue is not. I’ll take it a step further by offering that, unlike a statue, the righteous man is given life via his faith in a living God.

Do not abandon hope, all ye who read this, because if you live as you believe, then the Bible indeed sanctifies us as His children, confirmed in these verses:

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments…” (1 John 5:2)

“The Spirit itself bears witness within our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Romans 8:16)

Amen.