(Lock on a bridge outside a castle in Cesis, Latvia.)
On the Race, we have many different living situations… Sometimes we’re tenting, sometimes we’re in a hostel or hotel, sometimes we live in churches, and sometimes we stay in someone’s home…
Well, this month my new team and I have the privilege of living with an American missionary family in their retreat-style home in the countryside of L’viv, Ukraine. From the moment we met them, I felt immensely blessed!
When we arrived, we were shown our fully furnished rooms, large kitchen and dining area, and living room, complete with an upright piano and projector for movies! Our meals have both a Ukrainian and American flare to them and are quite tasty! The bathrooms include bathmats (which I’ve had yet to experience!) and even a towel heater to dry and heat your towel! I could go on…
(A castle from 1200 AD in Cesis, Latvia.)
One evening as I was preparing for bed, the verse below came to my mind as I began thinking how I’d be glad to volunteer to clean this house if I could simply live in it! (Granted, we’re already living in it and paying to be here…)
The comforts of home are refreshing, especially halfway through the Race… Don’t get me wrong, I’m still ready for the adventure of tenting (which I have yet to really do for a whole month!) and cooking over an open flame… But, refreshment is also rejuvenating!
So, I resonate with what one of the Sons of Korah wrote in Psalm 84 (verse 10):
“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”
I’ve thought back to my life in America, striving to live independently, as our culture encourages us to do when we become “adults”… To live on one’s own in the Seattle area is quite expensive. My meager income in no way would be able to pay for a house of my own, so I’ve been blessed to have roommates or live with family… yet, I’ve still sought to “make my own way…” (Of course, I wouldn’t say this is the same as dwelling in the “tents of the wicked,” but it is a way of trying to make a house for myself which in reality is only a tent in comparison to God’s house!)
(Façade of Franciscan Sisters’ church in Warsaw, Poland.)
That brings me back to the above verse… God has so many blessings for us; Jesus came for us to have the “abundant life”… To live with Him is to have all that we need and to actually have what is BETTER than we could ever make for ourselves. How many times do we seek to live our lives OUR ways and find ourselves dwelling in figurative “tents”? We go hungry, eating bread and water, all the while God offers us a buffet of fruits, meat, and living water… So, I invite you to join me as I continue to pursue Jesus… To let go of my pride, desire for self-sufficiency and independence; of pitching my own tent on the rocky ground and instead accepting the key God’s giving me to His mansion!
“Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”
-Psalm 84:4-
(Lutheran Church in Cesis, Latvia.)
