The Dwelling Place

It’s been an unusually busy summer.  It hasn’t been a bad thing, but our daily routines have been stretched and tweaked like a new yoga pose, leaving us sore mid morning with muscles that haven’t yet been exercised.  And something’s gotta give when life’s busyness erupts.  Usually the first to go is our spiritual walk. Our engagement with our Father is intimate, and takes time and effort.  It is too easy to neglect.  We know he isn’t going to, like a wayward spouse, desert us. We also remember that we have our trusty masks to hide behind;  to conceal the true condition of our heart.    It isn’t so obvious to the outside world.  These dusty hearts of ours.  In fact, most of ours are walking around like corpses. Mummified. Dead inside. Hidden by Hollywood smiles.

But this morning, I stood beside my brothers and sisters in reverence of a Holy Father who actively pursues my, more often than not, dead heart.  And he, like an electric shock, recharged me.  And the words from my head to my heart and out of my mouth sang,

“How lovely is your dwelling place

Oh Lord Almighty.

For my soul longs

And even faints

For you.

Of here my heart is satisfied

Within your presence

I sing beneath the shadow of your wings.”

And I got thinking about that phrase.  The dwelling place.  It sat with me all day long like a childhood friend.  Lingering.  Whispering. I am very much a dweller.  Things sit with me.  I mull them over.  I dwell on problems, on longings.  One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received about a particular area of my life, was to hold on to it, but not dwell on it.  In other words, don’t be consumed by it.  Because there is something else we should be dwelling on.  Or rather, a place we should be dwelling in.

Webster’s dictionary defines a dwelling as a shelter.  An abode.  A home.  Fireside.  As a verb it outlines, “to remain for a time”. “ To live as a residence”.  And I can’t think of a better way to articulate our relationships with God. Except the beauty of it is we can take him on the road, this shelter, this fireside of ours.  In our cars, to our workplace, while we do the dishes, to our child’s soccer practice, and he meets us there. And like the song, our hearts are somehow satisfied.

~Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere~ Psalm 84:10