Still More From Frank Laubach....

So back to what I was talking about the other day...Frank Laubach, the modern day mystic.  I read through about half of "Letters By A Modern Day Mystic" which are excerpts from his journals written during the year 1930. Because of health issues, his family was unable to join him on the island where he was a missionary so he spent much of his time alone...with God.

I have been so desperately lonesome that it was unbearable save by talking with God. And so every waking moment of the week I have been looking toward Him, with perhaps the exception of an hour or two.

My brain is a bit foggy this morning so I am just going to post snippets from his writings and if a seemingly worthy comment comes to mind, then I'll toss one out there...direct from the peanut gallery....

There is, there must be, so much more in Him than He can give us, because we are so sleepy and because our capacity is so pitifully small. It ought to be tremendously helpful to be able to acquire the habit of reaching out strongly after God's thoughts, and to ask, "God what have you to put into my mind now if only I can be large enough?"

Frank Laubauch sought to put on the mind of Christ...to live out of his spiritual nature rather than his egoic/adamic nature.  It is interesting to note that he, like Brother Lawrence, was not just zapped into the mystic mindset.  They yearned for it...they sought it out.  "Letters" talks about his burning desire to seek God every waking minute of every day. 

But this year I have started out trying to live all my waking moments in conscious listening to the inner voice, asking without ceasing, "What, Father, do you desire said? What, Father, do you desire done this minute?"

And he is candid in his failures. 

This conscious, incessant submission to God has proven extremely difficult, and I have surrendered for the past few days. And today and yesterday I saw evidences of the result.

A crowd of people arrived who, when they are in a crowd, wish to talk or think nothing of religion. I fear I have not wanted some of them to think me religious for fear I might cease to be interesting.

In an effort to be witty I have said biting things which have hurt the feelings of others, and have been short and impatient. I tremble, for I have told at least one of these men of this experiment, and he will think this is the result. It is very dangerous to tell people, and yet, I must tell and I must start over now and succeed. This philosophy that one can begin all over instantly at any moment, is proving of great help.

And so he continued with his quest..looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. 

Now that I have discovered Him I find that it is a continuous discovery. Every day is rich with new aspects of Him and His working. As one makes new discoveries about his friends by being with them, so one discovers the "individuality" of God if one entertains him continuously.

He sought the mind of Christ...have this mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus.  Put on the mind of Christ.  The new man....the new creation man.  Live out of that nature.  Cast off the old nature...

Can I bring God back in my mind--flow every few seconds so that God shall always be in my mind as an after image, shall always be one of the elements in every concept and percept?
If our religious premises are correct at all then this oneness with God is the most normal condition one can have. It is what made Christ, Christ. It is what St. Augustine meant when he said "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our souls are restless until they find their rest in Thee."

And when you live out of that nature you see the way God sees....and think the thoughts God thinks.  It spills over and out of you and touches all those around you.  You become God's Christ...walking the earth again and talking to those whose veils are thick.  Those who don't know their great and grand and wonderful father who is ever reaching out to them.  As Neale Walsh says (paraphrased) God is always speaking...but we are not always listening!! 

And I know that He makes my thought--life beautiful when I am open all the day to Him. If I throw these mind--windows apart and say to God, "what shall we think of now?" he answers always in some graceful, tender dream. And I know that God is love hungry, for he is constantly pointing me to some dull, dead soul which he has never reached and wistfully urges me to help Him reach that stolid, tight shut mind. Oh God, how I long to help you with these Moros. And with these Americans! And with these Filipinos! All day I see souls dead to God look sadly Out of hungry eyes. I want them to know my discovery! That any minute can be paradise, that any place can be heaven! That any man can have God! That every man does have God the moment he speaks to God, or listens for him!

I was blessed by these excerpts...and hope that you were as well.