True Delight

 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)

Photography not only affords me the opportunity to capture the beauty of the world around me, but it also enables me to go back again and again as I look at the (thousands of) photos stored on my devices to revisit the glory I experienced in the moment. And often as I look at the pictures, I see things I didn’t notice before.

Something moves within me when I behold the beauty and majesty of creation, whether it be on the grand scale of a Rocky Mountain sunrise or a tiny ladybug crawling on a plant. I find myself captivated by the level of detail and the interplay of colors. My heart is flooded with awe and wonder – peace, even – and I want more. More beauty. More more glory. More peace. 

It makes me wonder, where do I turn to satisfy the desires of my heart? As much as my heart is enthralled by the splendor of creation, as soon as I look away the feeling goes away. 

Where can I turn for true fulfillment?

“Delight yourself in the Lord,” said King David, “and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) There you have it. Delight yourself in the Lord. Find joy, happiness, meaning, purpose by turning to God. 

And it’s true. There is a radical reorientation that takes place when we delight in the Lord. When we turn to God as the source of our happiness, then the objects of our desires will change. The pursuit of things like wealth, popularity, worldly success will be transformed into the desire to love the Lord with all our being, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we delight in the Lord – when we turn to God in our pursuit of happiness and meaning – then our selfish desires and vain conceits will melt away, to be replaced with compassion, mercy, grace, and love. 

When we delight in the Lord, then the desires of our heart will be satisfied because the desires of our heart are now defined by our relationship with God. When we delight in the Lord, we find ourselves wanting the things that God wants for us.

Mind you, I’m still filled awe and wonder in the things I capture through the lens of my camera. But now, instead of the fleeting experience of the stirring in my heart at the beauty of creation, now I find myself filled with joy at the experience of witnessing the glory of the Creator. And that is much more fulfilling.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
       from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
       who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
       he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
       will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
       the Lord is your shade at your right 

         hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
       nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
       he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
       your going out and your coming in
       from this time on and forevermore.

 Note: Did you know that Sundays are not included in the 40 days of Lent? That's because Sundays are considered to be celebrations of the resurrection -- no penitence required! Since Sundays are not part of the 40 days of Lent, I will not be writing a devotion today; instead, I invite you to reflect on the words of the psalm. I hope you will attend church today. 

P.S. Since Sundays aren't in the 40 days of Lent, it means you don't have to "give up" anything today!

(Not that "giving up" something for Lent is ever a hard and fast requirement)

Seek His Face -- Here, There, and Everywhere

Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.

(Psalm 27:7-8)

In the morning,

in the evening,

all throughout the day, O God,

I seek you.

Hear my voice when I call, Lord.

“My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’

     Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

Your face, Lord, I will seek,

for I know that when I seek you,

I will find you.

And when I find you,

I know that I will find

   compassion for my pain,

   mercy for my plight,

   forgiveness for my sins,

   peace for my fears,

   strength to face the day.

Your face, Lord I will seek,

so that I may 

   love you,

   worship you,

   obey you,

   serve you,

   glorify you.

And because I know 

that all my encounters with others 

are also encounters with you

(for as I have done so to the least of these,

so also I have done to you…),

then I will also seek your face

in everyone I encounter today:

Your face, Lord, will I seek in the poor.

Your face, Lord, will I seek in the anxious ones.

Your face, Lord, will I seek in the stranger on the street.

Your face, Lord, will I seek in the children riding their bikes.

Your face, Lord, will I seek in the laid-off worker.

Your face, Lord, will I seek in the the business owner 

          who just shut down.

Your face, Lord, will I seek in the truck driver 

          delivering crucial medical supplies… and TP

Your face, Lord, will I seek in the exhausted doctors and nurses.

I seek your face in them, 

that I might love them as your children.

For so you have sought me

and loved me.

Your face, Lord, I will seek,

so that I may love you

as you have loved me.

Amen.

During the season of Lent, I am “Praying with David,” using prayers from the psalms as inspiration for personal prayers.

Restore us, O God

Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, 

     you who lead Joseph like a flock. 

You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, 

     shine forth before [your people]. 

Awaken your might; 

     come and save us. 

Restore us, O God; 

     make your face shine on us, 

     that we may be saved.

(Psalm 80:1-3)

We need you, O Lord.

The truth is, we always need you,

for it is in you alone

that we live and move

and have our being.

We always need you,

but sometimes the need seems

more urgent and acute to us.

Now is one of those times.

Around the world people live in fear and dread

of coronavirus COVID-19.

Invisible to the eye,

it travels from person to person

with frightening ease.

It infects, 

    debilitates,

       sometimes it kills.

COVID-19 has shut down the world.

Literally.

We really, really need you, O God.

Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel,

    awaken your might, come and save us.

Please.

Have mercy, O Lord.

Especially on those who are most vulnerable:

              the elderly

        those with other health risks

             medical and health personnel

     the working parents whose children

     are now out of school

       the workers who are or who will be out of a job

   teachers and school staff 

       children, because they are ALWAYS vulnerable

      business owners who may not reopen their doors

    the poor, who have less access to health care

Have mercy, O Lord,

on all of us, on the whole world.

We pray to you, with all urgency:

   Heal the sick.

   Stop this vicious virus.

   Protect those who provide care.

   Guide our leaders with wisdom.

   Calm the anxiety in our hearts.

   Stop the panic and hoarding.

   Restore the economies of the world.

Awaken your might; come and save us.

   Cultivate compassion and kindness in our hearts.

   Show us how to reach out in love and mercy.

   Give us your peace,

   the peace that passes all understanding.

We need you, O God.

We really need you.

Restore us, O God.

Make your face to shine upon us, we pray;

   look with favor upon us – 

   upon all of us, the whole world – 

   that we will be saved.

Thank you, O Lord, in advance.

Because we know you will help us.

We know you will save us.

Thank you.

Amen.

During the season of Lent, I am "Praying with David," using prayers from the psalms as inspiration for personal prayers.

Advent Waiting

“My heart says of You, ‘Seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8)

As a pastor, I always feel a tension with the world around me when it comes to observing Advent. Everyone is in such a rush to get to Christmas – as soon as Halloween was over (even before), stores were changing their decorations to reflect Christmas. And the Hallmark Channels have had non-stop Christmas movies since the middle of October.

“But what about Advent?”, I protest.

Christmas is about remembering – remembering that God assumed human flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, to save us from our sin.

But Advent is about waiting:

• Waiting for Jesus to come again and usher in the Kingdom of Heaven once and for all.
• Waiting for the new heaven and the new earth foretold by the biblical writers, and promised by God.
• Waiting for that time to come when we will no longer see dimly, as a poor reflection in a mirror, but will see God face to face – and experience his grace and glory in all their fulness.

Advent waiting is not a tapping-our-feet kind of impatient waiting. Nor is it a looking-at-our-watch kind of waiting. No, Advent waiting is informed by a deep longing in our hearts, much like the kind of longing we encounter in the Psalms:

“My whole being thirsts for God, for the living God.When will I come and see God’s face?” (Psalm 42:2)

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,and in his word I put my hope.My soul waits for the Lordmore than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen wait for the morning.” (Psalm 130:5-6)

“My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’Your face, Lord, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8)

How would you describe your Advent waiting? How deep is the longing in your heart?

Our cat (actually our daughter’s cat that we’re fostering while she’s in graduate school) loves to be with us. Only, he’s not content to be by our side or on our lap; he has to be in our face, literally. It gives a whole new meaning to “seek his face!”. Really, the way Ray persists in getting in our face is endearing – and it shows me something of the kind of persistence I should have in my heart as I seek God.

Advent waiting is active. It is living today as if the promised new heaven and new earth is already a done deal; and, in fact, we should assume that it is a done deal, because it is God’s promise to us. And God is faithful. Always.

So live today as if the tomorrow for which we hope has already come. Live, as the apostle Peter urges, “holy and godly lives as you wait eagerly for the day of God to come.” (2 Peter 3:11-12)

You see, the beauty of our waiting is this: as we await the day when we will see God face to face, God gives us glimpses of his grace and glory today.

“Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

Look for the Lord. You will find him.

Wait for the Lord. He will come.

Lord, I Want to Love You Like My Cat Loves Me

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do 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

My cat loves me.

Actually, he’s not my cat. He is our daughter’s cat. But, alas, she has gone to the far ends of the earth (Montana) to study for her Master’s in Social Work, and she was unable to take the cat with her. So the cat – Ray – temporarily belongs to Carol and me.

But I’m the one that Ray loves.

I’m not bragging about it. It just happens that Ray chose me as the one he looks to for provision, and friendship, and comfort. 

He greets me when I wake up in the morning, quickly settling on my lap as I try to read my Bible and drink my coffee. 

When I take a nap on the couch, he tries to get as close to my face as he can.

Sometimes when I am getting ready for work, Ray follows me around the house; and if I stop in the middle of the room, he will reach up and ask me to hold him. 

It’s pretty cute, really. And endearing.

It makes me wonder, though: Do I look to God with the same passion and devotion that my cat has for me? Do I seek to rest in God’s presence with my whole being? Is it the longing of my heart to be held in the hands of the One who provides for me and cares for me eternally?

The psalmist – probably King David – only asks for one thing: “to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of [his] life.” Of all the things that David could’ve asked for – wealth, happiness, power… – he simply asked to dwell in God’s presence. 

Actually, that’s been the chief desire of the human heart since the third chapter of Genesis, when the first humans hid from God in shame. We’ve wanted nothing more than to be restored to fellowship with God. As Augustine said, “My heart was restless until it found its rest in thee, O God.”

And so nowadays when Ray crawls up and imposes himself onto my lap, it makes me say a quick prayer: “Lord, I want to love you with the same passion and devotion that Ray loves me.”

One thing I ask of the Lord, this one thing I seek…

What’s your one thing?