A.W. Tozer begins chapter 3, “Removing the Veil”, with an epithet by
Until reading this quote followed by Tozer’s interpretation, I never thought restlessness was beneficial. The idea behind this thought is that as human flesh, we are restless for a reason- we are fallen creatures in need of God’s rest. Our restlessness enables us to seek the divine. Tozer follows this stream of thought with a question and answer from the Westminster Shorter Catechism: ‘Question: What is the chief End of Man? Answer: Man’s chief End is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.’ Tozer articulates that God formed us for his pleasure to “see him and live with him and draw life from His smile,’ but due to the Fall (as seen in Genesis 3), we have broken with God and because we ceased to obey him or love him we have a fear and guilt which causes us to flee as far as possible from his presence. God’s work in redemption is to undo the tragic effects of the Fall and bring us back into relationship with himself to glorify him and enjoy life.
This turning opens a conscious communion with God to live again in his Presence. “At the heart of the Christian message,” Tozer says, “is God himself waiting for his redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of his Presence.” Yet contempory American Christianity only knows this prescense in theory and “fails to stress the Christian’s privilege of present realization.”
This is the heart of Tozer’s argument I want to get to- how do we as a literate society experience God’s presence? I have been raised in a Christian home and accepted Christ as a 15 year old and grew to develop a better understanding of my beliefs in college. Yet the presence of God was always something I felt lacking in my life. Tozer says according to biblical teachings, Christians are always in his presence positionally, but still feel the need to experience it in actuality. There are distinct times in my life which I don’t remember clearly, but I remember sitting in rest with my God. They happen sometimes, but God wills that I push into his presence and live my whole life there. I still do not know what this looks like, but this year, I’ve been pushing harder than ever and I see the fruits of it. I know that if I lived in an oral culture, this would be easier. I have a tendency to look things from a completely intellectual, analyzing point of view instead of an ecstatic spiritual point of view- this is the product of being a college student in a literate culture. I tend to even rationally doubt that I could ever experience anything spiritually and at times, I haven’t even tried. I grow content in my positional faith rather than allowing myself to be led into a place of burning zeal. Tozer says “We are satisfied to rest in our JUDICIAL possessions and for the most part we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience.” This reminds of C.S. Lewis’ declaration that we are half-hearted creatures who are far too easily pleased.
People tend to reduce Christianity to one simple thing- is someone “saved” or not saved (puzzlement still remains to non-christians on what being saved is. I hate when people use this term without explanation). Being saved is not just about going to heaven. If it were, how would life itself ever be enjoyable? It’s also about enjoying eternity in the present moment, here on earth, by coming to relationship with God through his salvation he offers as a gift (if confused by what I mean, please ask and read Ephesians 2). Like Tozer, I also find it tragic that not only manifesting God’s presence is absent from the church, but being still and seeking some kind of presence is relatively a thing outside our culture. We are encouraged to live fast-paced, task-oriented lives with little thought to ever finding the rest we need.
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