Practicing the Presence of People: How We Learn to Love

by Mike Mason

In the deepest part of our hearts and souls is the desire to love well. Yet in our struggle to do so, we learn that, as Mike Mason puts it, "We are not born with love; it is something we must learn." Now, in Practicing the Presence of People, he helps us launch that learning process. Mason points the way to fresh knowledge and fresh experience, showing how we can discover new things about those we love, understand them from the inside out, tenderly identify with their weaknesses, and celebrate that they too were lovingly made by the hand of God.

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction, Faith, Christianity, Relationships, Christian Living, Spirituality

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 1999

About the author

Mike Mason is the best-selling, award-winning author of The Blue Umbrella, The Mystery of Marriage, The Gospel According to Job, Champagne for the Soul, Twenty-One Candles, and many others. He has an M.A. in English and has studied theology at Regent College. He lives in Langley, BC, Canada, with his wife.

Reviews

[C]

This book is packed full of simple yet profound insight on how to exlpore different ways of relating to people through your own life experience and story. The content was thick with meaning, and took a while to digest. It sounds as though Mason is one of those deeply respected men, that you want to mentor you...To sit in his presence and take in what he has digested through his own journey. Take your time, so you can drink it all in. This book is a deep well.

[Amanda]

"Why are we so fickle with books? Only because we do not want to practice what they preach. We think that all we need to do is read a book and its ideas will sink into us through osmosis." This is definitely a book that challenges you to practically alter the lens through which you see other people and how that view ultimately affects your relationship with God. Mason's passion for the people around him is contagious.

[Candice]

Mike Mason makes me think.

[Kilmeny]

This book was incredible! Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“To understand people, to know them, to enjoy them, we must humble ourselves and enter their presence.”
“For people are the primary channel through which God gives himself to us.”
“People do not want to be told how to live. They want to be loved.”
“Many people have become Christians only because someone loved them with a pure, safe, human love.”

[Bhavika]

DNF. I had high expectations based on the powerful title, but was disappointed. Very short chapters that felt disconnected and lacking in depth.

[Kerri]

Personally, a top favorite book I've ever read. I already know I will be reading it again. It's the kind of book that takes a while to read. It has 65 short chapters and almost every one had me underlining and highlighting and rereading lines.

[June]

There are, in the end, only two integral commandments: Love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. Brother Lawrence apparently (I’ve never read his book) wrote about the first commandment. The first commandment is not hard for me; how can I help but love the one who loved me first? Who lets me love him in whatever way I dare? It's like breathing; indeed, conversation with him is as integral, intimate, and intuitive as that.

But to love people…who do not always love one back…who misinterpret, and judge, and can be heartbreakingly wounded by my carelessness and neglect? For me, the second commandment is almost impossibly harder. Mike Mason addresses the second commandment. What if we were to truly engage with the people we are with? (Hint for book-lovers like me: This is not very easy to do while practicing the presence of books.) What if we were to love ourselves enough to forget ourselves and truly serve those nearest us? With humility and courage, the author opens a few dozen windows on that world of possibility.

A good book.

[Brian Bundesen]

I love this authors writing style, as well as the theme of the book. I'm a big fan of Brother Lawrence, and this author proclaims this book as a sequel to the Brother Lawrence classic. Several points spoke to me, and I will change by thinking for the better as a result of learning to look at things from a new perspective. Highly recommend this book, and I definitely will re-read it again.

[Ashley]

There are some really great gems in here, but they are a little buried... I wish the vignettes in each topic were a little more cohesive - this felt like I would just get started and then it would be over.

[John Dembeck]

Read and think about the book title and skip the book. The title and thought is helpful, the book is not. It can be misleading with bold opinions stated as truth, inaccurate principles and bad theology. 

[Portia]

I read this book during college, and its principles still have remained with me. I have since given my copy away, but I hope to reread it again to refresh myself on these concepts about how to be present with others and foster real connections.

[Alex MacDonald]

This book is phenomenal. It is deep. It has helped me immensely. I’m a person who wants to love. But don’t really know how. I know why now. I know how to now. Life changing.

[Jamie Pennington]

Good book filled with lots of little things that stop and make you think.

[Rebecca Voight]

Must read

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to further their relationship with God the Father. It lends one to deeper thinking about others.

[Aurimas Gudas]

Apie meilę žmonėms.
„Psalmės piešia žmones tokius, kokie jie yra, nieko nepagražindamos. Jas skaitant supranti, jog Dievas išsiilgęs tikrų žmonių.“ Mike Mason

[Jeanie Ruter]

Really good reminders of our need for human relationships and how every person is made in God's image.

[Karen Yoder]

This book is full of profound simplicity. It dives into the beautiful reality of encountering God through my neighbor, my sister, and my brother; of giving dignity and honor to God's image bearers.

[Abbie Usina]

Absolutely beautiful. A must read for every human being, especially Christians.

[Bonita]

What a challenge. It is one I will want to read again just as Browther Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God. The bottom line is that whatever we do if it is not in love it's just a waste of time and energy. Even prayer.
"Knuckle-rapping prayer is destructive... charismatic witchcraft" Ouch. If we do not love people we do not love God. I must admit there was not a chapter that did not give me something to take a look at how I view & treat people.
Good STUFF

[Mike]

Inspired by the classic Practicing the Presence of God, this book would have been improved if it had imitated its model in one more way: brevity. A lot of the content seems like filler, and some of it descends to a kind of free-association word game which is irritating and unhelpful.

I've given it three stars because there is some good content early in the book, and the intent is excellent. But it's theoretical, not practical, and the theory is not always very sound.

[Sang Jin]

Practice is more difficult than theory, prayer, and belief.
Makes me wonder how exposing our failings as 'man' is overcome by thinking of others. The theory is hard to argue.

[Quinton]

This book is all about love, and friendship. At the end, all you have is the relationships you've created. Learn to love people, and you will learn to live.

[Amy Davis]

I liked the short chs. and would recommend this for people who need a short pithy perspective to grasp big truths about relationships.

[Dan]

Had some helpful nuggets for intentionally and attentively being together with others and being for them a presence of gospel love.

[Mohamed Abou ghaly]

I love reading, especially in classic books

[Aaron Stoltzfus]

Absolutely incredible. There is so much more to people than the facade they put forth. Get to love the people around you and you will see God in them.

[Laura]

I love Brother Lawrence's book, and gained much practical wisdom in love from this book.