The Scripture passage I read this morning is not just a great passage, but a pretty great song too. Sadly, I’m not 100% on the reference, but I think it’s from Psalm 84 (you’ll have to excuse me, this post is being intermittently typed and uploaded from Tampa International Airport). The passage start with this, “How lovely it is to dwell in your courts!” The author of this passage is in complete and total joy at being in God’s presence. He didn’t just want to be at his place of worship – what he wanted was to be in God’s presence.
I’ve been in Tampa this week visiting my dad, who decided to take a wrong step off of a 12-foot ladder. Thankfully, his hands and face broke his fall. Seriously, we were pretty worried about him and it looks like today, he’ll be going home, so Praise God! I love my dad to pieces and it was hard seeing him lying in the bed, but it was great seeing and hearing how many folks loved him and sent their prayers (by the way, it looks like he’s going home today, so thanks for the prayers!). While down here, I’ve been able to spend some time with my uncle and cousin(s) for a bit. I pray everyone has this kind of loving and affectionate family!
I was driving around with my cousin and I was telling him how different it is to be down here after moving away in 1994. I told him that as I was driving I felt anxious and frustrated – kinda angry. He said, “Welcome back!” I get frustrated with traffic and crazy drivers all the time in Louisville, but I don’t necessarily feel as angry about it up there (which my Louisville friends may have a hard time believing). Now, I love it down here and I adore my family more than I could say, but there’s something about going home and being where you’re comfortable and feel, somewhat, normal.
I think this normal is what the psalmist is really getting at – he wants to be somewhere that is home. This person is saying that his ultimate home, his place where he is most comfortable, most alive, is standing or kneeling or crawling in the presence of the Most High. Notice, he doesn’t say in the temple, tabernacle, church, or small group, but in God’s presence – that is what he longs for!
Have you ever had that longing? I’m not talking about the “this day stinks, I’m ready to go to heaven where I’ll sit on a cloud and be happy” kind of longing. I’m talking of the “I long to sit and bask in glory of this God who’s very being is Love and Joy and Grace and Wholeness.” I’ve had glimmers of that hope, but I don’t know if it’s an everyday kind of thing. Can you imagine what a day like that might feel like? Can you imagine having that kind of longing for the presence of our God? What about this, can you imagine actually getting that kind of presence/feeling? What would you do with it? How incredible would that be?
I think a lot of us believe that kind of feeling could only happen in the “great by and by” but I don’t think that’s what the Psalmist thought. It appears to me that he thought he could experience that overwhelming beauty right there and then. What a brilliant thought – to long for, and experience the presence of the one who is life now, today and all day long! I pray that today, we’d both find some of that – we’d have a day where we can bring all of our garbage, stress, anxiety, hurts, habits, hang-ups and everything in between to the one who longs just to be with us. I pray that we’ll find time to long and to have that longing touched today. I pray that we’ll be able to kneel down and say, “it’s so good to be here with you God, wow!”
Thanks Tampa. Thanks for taking care of my dad. Thanks for being a place for me to come and hang for a couple days. Thanks to my Unk and Cousin(s) for being so amazing. Thanks to the friends I got to see. Thanks for the reminder that I’m not home and that as I fly back to the ‘Ville, I have the knowledge that being Home in my God is the place I most want to be!