In reading a post at Arlen Hanson's blog he had the following quote from Eugene Peterson which is in part of an interview in the March issue of Christianity Today:

"One of my favorite stories is of Teresa of Avila. She's sitting in the kitchen with a roasted chicken. And she's got it with both hands, and she's gnawing on it, just devouring this chicken. One of the nuns comes in shocked that she's doing this, behaving this way. She said, "When I eat chicken I eat chicken, when I pray, I pray." If you read the saints, they're pretty ordinary people. There are moments of rapture and ecstasy, but once every 10 years. And even then it's a surprise to them. They didn't do anything. We've got to disabuse people of these illusions of what the Christian life is. It's a wonderful life, but it's not wonderful in the way a lot of people want it to be."

I recently had a conversation with a young man who claims to be agnostic and his reason for being so is that he doesn't feel or sense the presence of God the way he perceives other Christians do. This quote from Peterson says it doesn't it? The reality of this walk with God is that there are times for all of us when we don't "feel" it. One of the problems us good Christians have is that we don't share that reality with others. We put on a front or just fake it in an attempt to cover up the reality of the fact that we are pretty ordinary and don't always feel God, feel good about God, etc., etc. I mean, what would my Christian friends think if they knew that there were times I had doubts and wasn't always the good believer I've let them think I am? Could it be that by doing so we are giving people the impression that if they don't always feel God or somehow sense his presense that they must not have what it takes to be a disciple or believer or christian or follower or whatever you want to call it? This young man said that because he didn't feel God all the time like others then it must not be his thing. I don't know about you, but I am more like this young man. I don't always sense God's presence or feel some supernatural thing either. I'm more like Teresa of Avila, pretty ordinary with moments of rapture and ecstasy.