06/03/2023
Today I am mulling over what it means to really know God. What should a life be like that is fully engaged with the will of God? I am considering that place in faith where our struggle is less and a comfort has settled over us.
“But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Psalm 131:2 ESV
My wife spends a week or two vacationing with my daughter and her family in Orange Beach Alabama. I stay at home to work and save my vacation days for other times when out of necessity I need to take off from work. When we were younger, and our relationship just maturing, we would never have separated like this. However, after well over forty years, we are comfortable in our relationship and know each other so well, that we are at peace in each other's lives, likes, and dislikes. I say all of this about our relationship to tell you about what I did one year while she was away.
Before she left for the beach we had our family room repainted. It was expensive, but had been my wife's desire for some time. After it was done it looked so nice that my wife wistfully said that she would like our basement stairway and bathroom repainted. It wasn't a plan... just a passing thought; you know, the vague dream that over time begins to become an idea, then a plan, and finally, at some future time, reality. So when Ann left for the beach I decided to surprise her, and after a trip to the paint store and Home Depot, I worked all weekend, and every evening during the week to paint those rooms. I did this to surprise her when she came home. I remembered the colors she liked from the little cards she brought home to dream from, and the casual conversations I had overheard as she spoke with family members... so the big job became less about work, and more about an act of love.
At last the week (and the painting) was over and I picked Ann up at the airport. On the way home, amid all the stories of the beach, she mentioned that she would like to get the stairway and bathroom repainted at some time... I just smiled and said "really?" When we pulled into the garage I told her to go upstairs and that I would bring up her suitcase. I watched as she opened the door to the stairway and her reaction was priceless. I then told her to look at the bathroom! Well it was fantastic.
This all began by being comfortable enough to know each other's likes and dislikes, and in being settled enough in a relationship that times that once seemed like separation no longer seem as such. We are like this in our faith and relationship with God as well. Somewhere through the years of spiritual development our togetherness broadens to the point that our being in Nashville, and God being in Orange Beach, doesn't separate us anymore than going to work in the morning and our spouse going about their daily routine. We have come to the place where we are together... even when others might see us as apart.
This is a secret of faith that I now want to reveal... when we become so at ease with God and His will for us that there is no time or place where we feel separated, then a comfort comes over us and the love deepens between us... beyond our ability to describe. God tells us this secret in our lives, and he shows us its intricacies in our faith.
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.”
Psalms 25:14 KJV
There is a saying that speaks of being "Comfortable in our own skins", well, there is truth in this saying, that we can become so comfortable inside that everything within us is at peace. We can also become comfortable in the skin of our faith, and when we do, the presence of God pours His peace into us in such a way that we hardly perceive it as an effort.
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:7 KJV
This doesn't happen with a bang, or at the end of a ceremony, it happens slowly and deliberately like the distancing of the moon from the earth... it happens so slowly until one day we simply realize it is so, and the realization of that doesn't surprise us... it just makes sense. It is as though we have known this secret all along and are just now acknowledging it. Is your relationship with Jesus, and our Heavenly Father, like that? Has your love matured to that place where we can go, and there is no separation… ever?
“”Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””
Matthew 28:19-20 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the deep and abiding love we share. I thank you for this relationship in which we are never apart in distance, thought, deed, or spirit. Lord, I thank you for a lifetime of lessons and loving in which each moment has brought us closer. Holy Father, I thank you for the realization that we are never apart, never out of touch, never separate in desire or will, not even for a moment, and that our relationship has grown deeper than any ocean. Father I thank you for this day, not because of what I will use it for, but because you are in it with me... your presence is all I need, and your peace my dearest friend. Rest in me, and let me rest in you. Teach me that your rest comes upon as a lingering peace, quiet, stillness, and even in worldly solitude, Let me surprise you with my love, and my knowledge of your dreams, just as you surprise me with yours, and your understanding of mine.
“Surprise us with love at daybreak; then we'll skip and dance all the day long.”
Psalm 90:14 MSG
Rich Forbes