Blog by Alan Fadling

 In my previous article, I reflected on the difference between merely knowing about God and living in firsthand communion with him. I explored the contrast A. W. Tozer drew between scribes who have read and prophets who have seen.

But what does this sort of living communion with God actually look like over time? How does a life become steadily shaped by the presence of God—not dramatically or instantaneously, but quietly, daily, almost imperceptibly? Let’s consider two other voices from the spiritual tradition that have helped me think through that.

Ruusbroec: A Present, Daily Coming of Christ in Grace

One spiritual writer whose work I read a few years back is John of Ruusbroec, who lived a couple generations before Thomas à Kempis and helped prepare the soil from which The Imitation of Christ eventually grew. His quiet, Christ-centered teaching shaped a community called “The Brethren of the Common Life,” whose purpose was reminding believers that deep faith is formed not through hurry or public posturing but through steady attentiveness to God.

Toward the beginning of his classic book The Spiritual Espousals, Ruusbroec explains his intent for writing:

“We do not intend to speak here of a person’s initial conversion or of the graces which were first bestowed when he turned from sin to virtue. Rather, we wish to speak of a day-to-day increase in new gifts and new virtues and of a present, daily coming of Christ our Bridegroom into our soul.”*

What especially captures my attention there is his vision of “a present, daily coming of Christ” into our lives.

In this context, he speaks of the coming of Christ in three ways: First, his initial coming in the incarnation, then his daily coming to our soul, and finally his coming again at the end of time. Jesus came, he continues to come to us, and he will come again.

This biblical idea of Christ our Bridegroom is why this classic work is called The Spiritual Espousal. It is Ruusbroec’s way of talking about an intimate, relational walk with Jesus—not just believing in Christ but learning to live in loving communion with him, where trust, surrender, and love mature over time.

Not only are we saved by grace, but we live by grace day to day and moment to moment. We are always in need of the generous, empowering, guiding presence of God. As one of my mentors used to say, “God is always baking fresh bread in the oven of our souls that we might share with others to bless them.”

Green: Spiritual Life as Seeing Ordinary Through God’s Eyes

There is one other author I frequently quote who offers his own perspective on what it’s like to live in vital communion with God in his grace in every moment. Thomas H. Green was an experienced spiritual director whose writings have helped many Christians (including me) understand that seasons when prayer feels empty are not a sign of failure but an expression of God’s deepening work.

In reflecting on the Gospel of John, Green writes: 

“It seems to me that this is one of the central insights of St. John’s Gospel: The interior life is not a question of seeing extraordinary things but rather of seeing the ordinary things with the eyes of God.”†

Of all four Gospels, John is often described as the most mystical (in the best sense of that word). When Christians use the word mystical, they’re not talking about wild visions or spiritual fireworks. They’re simply naming a faith that learns to see everyday life—work or relationships, suffering or joy—in and through God’s loving presence.

So much of the Gospel of John is devoted to the teachings of Jesus in the Upper Room (chapters 13-17), including his extended prayer for unity. In that prayer, Jesus speaks of a mutual indwelling that he prays for and invites us into. But it often seems as if few have embraced this invitation or entered deeply into it.

This interior life is not measured primarily by profound spiritual experiences, or words or images received in prayer, or any other dramatic happening in God’s presence. It is, as Green says, learning to see every ordinary thing through God’s eyes.

A deeply rooted life in the Spirit enables us to see the creative, caring hand of God in everything that surrounds us. God loves everything he has made. God cares for everything in creation. God’s love for everyone and everything endures forever.

So perhaps the quiet invitation at the heart of the four voices I’ve shared in this article and the one two weeks ago (Tozer, Peterson, Ruusbroec, and Green) is not to despise learning, reading, or study, but to let them serve  something deeper.

The danger is not that we become scribes. We all begin there. The danger is if we stop there.

• Scribes gather words. Prophets are shaped by presence.
• Scribes speak accurately. Prophets speak truthfully.
• Scribes report on God. Prophets bear witness to a God they have met.

And the good news is this—prophets are not born that way. They are formed over time, in hidden places, through patient attentiveness, through prayer that often feels ordinary, dry, or unremarkable. We are transformed from scribes to prophets as we learn to see ordinary life with the eyes of God.

This is the interior life Jesus invites us into. Not dramatic, not flashy, not hurried. A life where Christ continues to come to us daily in grace. A life where the Spirit trains our vision, so that what once looked mundane begins to shimmer with meaning.

My hope for myself—and for you—is not that we would have more to say about God but that we would become people who have truly been with God. People whose words, when they are needed, carry the quiet weight of lived grace.

May we read well.

May we listen deeply.

And may God, in time, make us more than scribes.

May he form us into people who speak of the One we have seen.

For Reflection:

• Where do you notice God inviting you to see ordinary life differently—not just as routine but as a place where his presence is already at work?
• When have you experienced a quiet sense of Christ meeting you in an ordinary moment, relationship, or season of life? What was that like for you?
• What might help you become a little more attentive this week to the “daily coming of Christ” in grace?

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* John Ruusbroec, The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works, trans. James A. Wiseman, OSB (Paulist Press, 1985), p. 51.

† Thomas H. Green, When the Well Runs Dry (Ave Maria Press, 1979), p. 151.

Alan Fadling (MDiv) is a founding partner of Unhurried Living, Inc. in Mission Viejo, CA. He writes and speaks as an expert in the challenge of hurry in contemporary life and work and how to overcome it. He consults and coaches leaders and their organizations in the U.S. and around the world, helping them work towards long-term productivity that lasts rather than settling for quick fixes that don’t. Alan co-leads PACE, a two-year leadership formation journey that helps leaders live and lead from spiritual depth rather than depletion. He is the award-winning author of six books including An Unhurried Life, An Unhurried Leader and A Non-Anxious Life. To connect with Alan and find resources for soul care and leadership, visit unhurriedliving.com or find him on LinkedIn.