Tracking the Son
(From the January - March 2021 issue of VOX)
“We cannot run this Christian race outside relationship with the Lord; we must be vitally joined and connected to Him as our life-source. Relationship is costly because it will require time, and the cost of relationship with the Lord is plenty of time lavished in the place of prayer... Trying to do ministry outside of intimacy with Jesus is hard work. God is looking for men and women in this day who will know Him behind closed doors in the secret place, [people] who will walk with God, live in deep fellowship and who are carriers of His presence.”
A timely new book from Mary Evuarherhe calls Christians to a deeper relationship with Jesus by cultivating the “secret place” relationship of a personal prayer life. VOX magazine editor Ruth Garvey-Williams spoke with Mary to find out more.
Tell us about yourself
I come from a very large family in Nigeria. When I was 12 years old, we had a Nanny who was a Christian and radically living for the Lord. She shared the Gospel with me. I surrendered my life to the Lord that night. I remembered having an encounter with God at that young age. A few months later I went to boarding school. My encounter with God was short-lived as I drifted away from Him in boarding school.
Later at university in 1993, people kept inviting me to go to church but I kept refusing. I knew that the Lord was pursuing me but I didn’t want anything to do with Him. I fell in love and all I wanted was to be with this man. But when he broke my heart, I finally decided to go along to church with a friend and her parents. I cried out to the Lord, “I will give you my heart; my broken heart.” In hindsight that breakup was a blessing in disguise. “Oh, thank you, Jesus for that heartbreak!” The Lord mended my broken heart and I fell in love with Him.
How long have you lived in Ireland?
I have lived in Ireland for 18 years with my husband (Prince) and we have three teenage children, a boy and two girls. We moved to Ireland from Nigeria to find a better life. We joined Liberty Community Church in Dublin and we’ve been part of that church ever since. I am a Healthcare Chaplain, working for Dublin Central Mission, providing end-of-life care for the elderly in a nursing home and two sheltered homes for the elderly.
What convinced you to write this book?
When I gave my life to God, I was passionately in love with Jesus. I was seeking Him all the time. But after some years, my love for Him started to diminish, especially when the children came along. It got to a point that I stopped seeking God. I had no passion for the Lord. I had the language of Christianity but I knew that I had forsaken my first love.
Around 2008, I began to cry out to the Lord again. I prayed, “Lord help me to fall in love with you again.” I wanted a passionate relationship with Jesus. At that time, my children were under the age of six and I discovered that for me, the best time to seek God was at 4am before everybody woke up. As I began to spend time with the Lord, He became more real to me in the secret place. My utmost desire was to know Him and the more I knew Him, the more I fell in love with Him. Prayer became a pleasure; I began to enjoy and not endure praying. I began to practice the presence of God daily (as Brother Lawrence describes it in his book The Practice Of The Presence Of God).
Two years ago, in the early hours of the morning, when I was spending time with the Lord, my eyes were shut to minimise my distractions. With the eyes of my spirit, I saw a picture of a huge sunflower, and I had a strong desire after my time with the Lord to research sunflowers.
So what did you find out?
From my research, I discovered that sunflowers have an extraordinary and unique characteristic of “tracking the sun”. At sunrise, sunflowers are turned towards the east; over the course of the day, they keep turning to track the sun from east to west whilst, at night, they return to an eastward direction looking forward to the new dawn.
The Lord spoke to my heart, “I want you to track me every day like the sunflower tracks the sun.” The Lord wants us to seek Him, to return to our first love. With everything that has happened over the last year, we need the peace that comes from being in His presence (Psalm 16:11). How can we hear what He has to say when we are not spending time with Him? Jesus grows sweeter and lovelier day by day as we grow in the knowledge of Him. Many people go to church but they don’t know Him intimately. John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
Your book was published during a time when churches could not meet together, why is that important?
Many people have been complaining about how they miss the church. They miss gathering together with others to worship God (and that is good) as Hebrews 10:25 tells us, “let us not neglect our meeting together...” But the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). We cannot love anyone outside the proximity of intimacy; we must draw near to God before we can know Him and fall in love with Him. The lockdown has given many of us an opportunity to spend quality time in the presence of God, knowing Him and also falling in love with Him. So many people have grown their relationship with the Lord by spending time with Him during this lockdown - what a blessing!
People often feel that the sort of prayer life you are describing is just for the really spiritual ones.
This spiritual realm is for the ‘whosoevers’ because the Bible makes us understand that God does not show favouritism (Acts 10:34). He is looking for passionate lovers. Love grows. I started by spending ten minutes with Him, and in the consistency of my love relationship with the Lord, it grew from ten minutes to an hour and then more... His Presence is so wonderful. This is not an overnight success; we must patiently learn to wait on the Lord; the more you seek Him and find Him, the more you fall in love with Him. You cannot manufacture affection; love for Him grows naturally when you spend time with Him. Many people become uneasy after spending five minutes in prayer.
When you are in love with somebody talking to them becomes effortless. True prayer is measured by weight and not length; it is not the abundance of words. Prayer is communion with God. This is not a microwave relationship. It requires plenty of alone times to develop intimacy with Him. It will cost us our time. But when we fall in love with the Lord, His presence becomes addictive and we crave far more of Him.
Like many people, 2020 was a painful year for you. Tell us about that.
I lost two close relatives in June and my mother on 1 October. This was the first time in my life I had come face-to-face with deep grief. It is a bitter pill and everyone grieves differently, I don’t know how people without faith manage. I could only go through this wilderness experience because I knew the Lord was with me. When the waves of grief came like a tsunami, I had the secret place to run to and weep before the Lord. Some days were easier than the others. My hope that I will see my mother again made the grieving process more bearable. She knew the Lord and I know she is with Jesus.
All this is a process, and I must go through it with the Lord; He makes it bearable.
It was hard not being able to be with my mum during her illness and her last days because of the lockdown. I couldn’t travel to Nigeria. I was heartbroken that I wasn’t there to hold her hand and just be present. But I also grieve with hope because I know that one day I will see her again. There’s a future reunion coming and that’s the glorious hope I cling to.
How can people get hold of your book?
Tracking The Son is available on Amazon, people can email me [Ed note: send an email to editor@vox.ie and we’ll pass it on] or contact me on my Facebook page.
