Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart. – Psalm 73:1
I truly hope you will take time to read Psalm 73 in its entirety, today. The psalm is one that gets to the heart of one who truly desires God above the ways of the world, in my opinion.
The world is constantly finding new ways to distract us from what matters most. In these past months where the world was shut down, turned upside down, we found a ton of new distractions. We might have found that we spent more time on social media, more time watching tv, more time eating snacks, more snacks that we like to eat. Yes, I meant to say that both ways.
Truth is, we found that we had more time on our hands and no place to go, I remember one day seeing something come across my screen that said: “after quarantine will you emerge a monk, a hunk, a drunk, or a chunk, the choice is yours.”
I chuckled when I saw it, but there was some serious truth behind the choice. What we choose to do, to focus on, and how we live each day, matters.
This time could have been spent doing exercise, and getting into a more healthy lifestyle. I’ll be honest, we tried this, and for a little bit of time, I was down a few pounds. Between daily walks around the neighborhood, working in the yard, I felt pretty good. But I’m still far from any “goal weight.” Yet, there are others who may have done better treating their body as a temple (hunk).
I have heard from some friends, who have let stress get to them, and have moved in a negative direction, increasing their alcohol intake, finding new drinks to mix, or discovering that the wine opener works just as well in morning as it does in the evening. After all, even Jesus turned water into wine, when the wine ran out (drunk). And of course there are those who have lost all self-control (chunk), and have found themselves constantly in the pantry, my children among them.
This time apart could have drawn us closer to God, spending more time reading and studying, it could have been a time to do deep research, or spend in prayer drawing closer to God (monk).
Sometimes, however it is easy for us to get distracted by the other things of this world, and even begin to wish or idolize those who seemingly have it better than we do. The psalmist says “21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, 22 I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.”
Yet, then the psalmist is reminded that even at our worst, God still holds us fast. So no matter how you have spent this time apart, or continue to do so, please know that God holds you fast and I pray the divine presence is ever present in your mind and heart, today and always. Amen.
Grace & Peace,
Sam