WHERE YOU LIVE AND WHY IT MATTERS?
‘Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.’ Psalms 91:1
Have you ever met someone for the first time and barrage them with questions? Something like, “what’s your name? Where did you go grow up? What school did you attend? What brought you to this area? How did you get connected with this company? What sort of hobbies do you have?
You know, that sort of stuff. Basically, you’re trying to build a connection with that person. An attempt to build some common ground and gain trust. I get it and do it all the time.
One of those questions I use from time to time is, “where do you live?” Now, this can be a good question or it can be a terrible question. It’s not a question I tend to use frequently. A question like, “where do you live,” can evoke bad memories for people — horrible memories. And, that’s just not a conversation that is easy to build upon.
However, for the topic today, it’s a good question to ask. Psalms 91 is one of the OG Psalms. Meaning, tons of people know it, reference it and hang there hat on it.
So when it says, “those who LIVE,” it’s basically asking you and I, “where do we live?” Here in Psalms, it is telling us what happens when we live in the shelter of the most high. Plain and simple, “you will find rest.”
So, I guess we need to ask ourselves again, “where do we live?” Or, maybe we can ask like this, “where do you spend your time?” Or maybe, “where do you eat, sleep and lounge around?”
The answers to those questions will determine if you are “finding rest.”
Last night, our youngest daughter Lior decided to have one of those tragic sleeping nights. Which basically means, she jumped in our bed, laid across the bed, moved all over and on top of us. The worst part about it, she woke up. My bride tried to move her back to her bed (her baby bed is in our room which makes for easy access to our bed — and because she’s our youngest, we are OK with that). While she did move her, it didn’t last long before she was back in our bed.
So that’s our youngest daughter causing a tragic nights sleep. Then, our oldest daughter (who was sleeping on the floor next to our bed because she gets scared at night) decided to start coughing. I wasn’t sure if it was an allergy thing or what — but it was loud and it was bad.
Then, to make the whole situation worse, our sound machine turned off. So we are hearing everything — baby cries, coughs, grunts and everything in between.
I said all that to say, we did not get “rest” last night.
Maybe it’s related to not living in the shelter of the most high — I don’t know. I chalk it up to just one of those nights when you have small children.
What I do know is, I prefer to be rested. Life is better when you’re well rested. I can think better, smile bigger and utilize the gifts of the spirit.
I do want to live in the shelter of the most high. I do want my time with God to be noteworthy and intentional. Maybe that’s what this is all about. Creating the space in our day to live in God’s shelter.
I definitely know that I need rest — so I might as well figure out how to live.
