God, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Psalm 90:1-2
I know there are many great reasons to read contemporary language versions of the Bible, but there is something about the more traditional language of the NRSV and yes, even the KJV, that still appeals to me. Consider the word "dwelling," there just aren't many other places these days that I can read that word. When I read the word I think of home and of lingering. There is the idea of both place and time included in the word "dwelling." In this short text, we read that God is our dwelling place for all time. We find our home in God and we reside in time and space with God. God is with us in all time and all space and in this time and this place. God is part of our daily routines, rituals, movements, and interactions.
My favourite time to linger with God and notice God's presence with me is in the morning hours. I like to get up earlier than anyone else in the household (and my housemates will tell you I get cranky if they are up early too!) so that I can go through my morning routine and ritual in quiet and solitude. My morning rituals may seem slow and even silly to some, but I need that time to give shape to my day, to centre me, and to allow me to enter the rest of the day with a sense of God's presence.
How do you greet the day?
What rituals or habits help to establish your day?
What is your favourite time of the day?
What do you do to intentionally find your dwelling place with God?
Praise be to God who dwells among us. May we find ways to linger in time and place with God.
-Amy
1 comment:
I am trying to learn more to BE than to do, and the word dwelling seems to suggest staying in one place long enough to experience it, to slow down in it.
Thanks for your blog. I am a United Church youth leader who came upon your Sabbath project and is thinking of building it in to our youth ministry this fall 2008. I plan to read and contemplate more quietly some of what you've envisioned in Reclaim the Sabbath.
Post a Comment