What I've been dreaming of....

Psalm 84 (The Message)

What a beautiful home, GOD of the Angel Armies!
I've always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house, where I could sing for joy to God--alive!

Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
singing their songs in the place where we worship.
GOD of the Angel Armies! King! God!
How blessed they are to live and sing there!

And how blessed all those in whom you live,
whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God--traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
at the last turn--Zion! God in full view!

God of the Angel Armies, listen:
O God of Jacob, open your ears--I'm praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I'd rather scrub floors in the house of my God
than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is GOD,
generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn't scrimp with his traveling companions.
It's smooth sailing all the way with GOD of the Angel Armies.

What if we woke up today and realized that all of this is exactly what we'd been dreaming of? Nirvana. Paradise. Heaven. All of it. Here.

If we lived our lives like this psalm - aware, thankful, prayerful, joyful - it would be not only be healing to us individually, it would be revolutionary to interactions with the world.

In the last 24 hours, I can find ways we are ruining things:

• Using too much of every natural resource the earth has blessed us with
• Complaint has become a more common language than kindness
• We are more isolated, even as we jog alongside each other or sit in gridlock on the freeway
• It is all about me. MY advancement. MY success. MY struggle. Me, me, me.
• Our appetite for satisfaction is insatiable, and it is rotting us from the inside out on our quest to buy more stuff, be the prettiest, do things perfectly

Conversely, in the same 24 hours, God has redeemed all of that - flipping it around 180 degrees.

He has instead, been healing, hopeful, and faithful. He has:

• Stretched this paycheck, encouraged recycling, and provided natural and financial resources that people I know need
• Healed me through some of the kindest words that directly answered prayers I prayed
• Used isolation to teach me how to honor my parents, myself, and provided time for introspection over a lunch hour sojourn
• Given me the conviction to try and take myself of my prayer life for awhile - letting others in
• Through the repeated promises in his Word, proved that satisfaction is not found in anything but Him. Not in money, clothing, love or approval, but in connecting with Him and applying his principles into this world.

As the psalmist says, I have always longed to live in a place like this.

It's always been so, but the perspective I view things through is often skewed. I've missed that on earth, I can be connected to God, seeing a world through His redeeming gaze - a place where He is with me every moment, in every set of eyes I look into.

As the psalmist says, I have always dreamed of a place where I could go to be freely who I am.

I am there. I believe in an earth where God is vastly present, and now, I am there, free to be who I've been created to be: effervescent, life-giving, prayerful, humbled, joy-full, peace-full.

As the psalmist says, those in whom you live are blessed. Their lives become roads you travel.

God is a good hiking buddy. He ought to know the trail, since He made the dust, navigated the path, and has traversed its roads a thousand times before.