Just Missed
Walked into last week’s service late, to enter upon the wistful strains of the final hymn, and a congregation reverently brought into the throne room, with strong expectancy, and a sweetly surrendered spirit… The thought which haunted me as I left the service clung: ‘I missed You…’ I had so closely brushed past the intimacy that could have been…
There’s still sadness, and an added urgency now to not let such regret take root again. Yet there’s also a broader question to contemplate: how many times do I short-circuit myself in drawing near? How many ways do I prove the biggest hindrance to being in that raw, face-to-face communion with my Maker? How often must I, harried by temporal concerns, short-change what could be so rich a moment of fellowship?
Proverbs 15:8 has struck an interesting note:
“The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked,
but the prayer of the upright pleases Him.”
His pleasure is not in the outward, but in our ‘prayer;’ in our interior longing to know Him, and ‘learn’ Him richly; in our desire to pursue Him recklessly as we long to experience Him more ~
Think the deepest pang of sadness comes in the aftermath of those moments when – having had opportunity to be with Him, and absorb Him in greater depth – we opted for anything short of Him, and found that the loss is ours alone. Can’t yet discern any regret, any ‘backward longing,’ quite as lamentable as the realization that there existed the ideal opportunity to enter into that divine fellowship, and – for some inexplicable reason – we allowed that moment to pass by, irrevocably…
Yet, for as much as the twinge of any particular occasion may haunt us, God has granted - even from the negative - that we might acknowledge the reality which spans eternity: that ‘the nearness of God is our good’ (Psalm 73:28). Somehow, though we may discover the truth from the backside of sorrow, we are always returned to the assent which is engrained upon our souls, the recognition which pours forth also in David’s desperate and determined cry: ‘I have no good besides You’ (Psalm 16:2) ~
There’s still sadness, and an added urgency now to not let such regret take root again. Yet there’s also a broader question to contemplate: how many times do I short-circuit myself in drawing near? How many ways do I prove the biggest hindrance to being in that raw, face-to-face communion with my Maker? How often must I, harried by temporal concerns, short-change what could be so rich a moment of fellowship?
Proverbs 15:8 has struck an interesting note:
“The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked,
but the prayer of the upright pleases Him.”
His pleasure is not in the outward, but in our ‘prayer;’ in our interior longing to know Him, and ‘learn’ Him richly; in our desire to pursue Him recklessly as we long to experience Him more ~
Think the deepest pang of sadness comes in the aftermath of those moments when – having had opportunity to be with Him, and absorb Him in greater depth – we opted for anything short of Him, and found that the loss is ours alone. Can’t yet discern any regret, any ‘backward longing,’ quite as lamentable as the realization that there existed the ideal opportunity to enter into that divine fellowship, and – for some inexplicable reason – we allowed that moment to pass by, irrevocably…
Yet, for as much as the twinge of any particular occasion may haunt us, God has granted - even from the negative - that we might acknowledge the reality which spans eternity: that ‘the nearness of God is our good’ (Psalm 73:28). Somehow, though we may discover the truth from the backside of sorrow, we are always returned to the assent which is engrained upon our souls, the recognition which pours forth also in David’s desperate and determined cry: ‘I have no good besides You’ (Psalm 16:2) ~
posted by Purple at 11:04 PM
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