Growth

Starting Off Right

“One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.” – Psalm 27:4

Happy New Year!

As I think about starting another trip around the sun, I’m reminded of how much freedom a beginning can bring. Every 365.25 days we start another new year. With our thanks to Julius Caesar, this turning of the calendar gives us a new opportunity to become the people that we think we can be. Of course, January 1 is really just another day like any other, but the perception of its primacy creates expectations for improvement.

Experts will tell you that starting the new year with a bunch of pie-in-the sky resolutions is dangerous because you’re not likely to be able to fulfill them. Instead, they caution, that you should create reasonable goals interspersed with milestones. In this way, you can obtain what you seek.

I don’t know whether David wrote the passage above at the start of another new year, but in it, he does open the door to his heart to share with us his resolution. He has one goal in mind – to be where God is.

As I read the passage, I’m struck by two things. First, David takes such care to emphasize that this is his heart’s desire, that he redundantly identifies it as both the “one thing” he asks, and the object which he seeks. He passionately articulates that for him, this is of preeminence.

Secondly – David says that he wants to be where God is because he desires to both 1) gaze upon His beauty and 2) to be in His temple. The Psalmist both wants to feel God’s pleasure and experience His presence. Ill content to just experience God from afar – he desires an intimacy that requires physicality. He wants to both know His Father’s love and to be in relationship with Him.

At the start of another new year, I think that’s a wonderful resolution to make.

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Growth

The Company in the Wilderness

Fair warning – this is one of those blogs that will cause my mom concern. No need to worry, Mom, I’m just fine. Just being philosophical or theoretical or something that sounds intelligent). 🙂

One of the great mysteries of the Christian walk are the times when God feels far away. Oftentimes, this follows moments of great happiness and joy. We ride the high of grateful exuberance and when the allure of the new blessing has faded away, we wonder where God is. We had confused pleasure with His presence and then we lost our sense of Him in the distraction of the days. We can feel like Dorothy seeking the Emerald City with nary a friendly face in sight.

These times, these moments of feeling like God’s lost when we want to be lost in God, are not for the faint of heart. There can be moments of anguish as we search for what we thought we once knew. We strive towards God, hoping that we can somehow conjure that feeling of completeness that we thought we had obtained when times were good. We struggle, hoping to overcome the temptations that blight our path. And we persevere knowing that the faithfulness of God far exceeds our momentary feelings of betrayal.

The desperation drives us to our knees. And that’s when we find what we’ve been seeking.

Its the moments in the wilderness that causes us to recognize the comforts that abound in God’s presence. If we turn to Him in these moments, it’s easy to see that the promises that He holds for us far outweigh the temporal joys of this life. When all else fails, He is faithful. When all else breaks, He holds firms. When all else is compromised, He remains true. No aroma is sweeter, no arms more satisfying than that which we experience when we find ourselves with Him. It is with Him that we find rest.

The wilderness can be a scary place to be unless you know the way. Or if you are with the One who created it. Then it becomes a great adventure.

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