Psalm 84: 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.**
My mind dances around the next quiet or fun thing as a break, a breaking-in, of joy. Opportunity. Relief found in my deep breath at nap time or feet kicked-up after little bodies are jammy-clad and tucked-in tight.
But You tell me otherwise.
Now. Now is my rest time, now is my great break. Now is time for me, time for You. A few strung-together minutes where my pruned hands scrub plates again, and I can look up. An extra-long cuddle one where little legs find its way around my waist and I can breathe You in.
Adoration is available to me at any moment, every moment. And when I look up, I find a place that’s better than any break I contrive.
You are better. I worship You, oh One who sets up a way-station for every tired heart, who knows that my tired heart needs hourly rests in Beauty.
I love you, oh deep drink of God-presence that comes from Your hand and penetrates my everything. My outlook changes, my stiff-posture loosens, and both mundanity and pain have reprieve. Their hold can’t enter the courts You’ve created for those of us weary-from-motherhood, tired from life. I leave boredom and discouragement at the door of a place where Your presence both completes me and beckons me.
I adore You, God who makes one thousand days of great productivity and impact and tidy bedrooms with books all in place seem like nothing, compared to one single day of gazing on You. If one day compares to one thousand in this way, one minute of looking up and thinking on you is better than a thousand minutes of doing anything else.
I love you God who breaks in, not with incredible circumstances or life-altering ease, but with the ultimate fulfillment: Yourself. Soaking You up, in the courts of Your house — in my house, in my kitchen and my bedroom and on my front porch where little voices squeal of spring — redeeming a thousand minutes of looking in, looking down.
I praise You, God, redeemer of my minute-by-minute.
Better than a mid-afternoon chai, better than that piece of news I’ve been waiting on, is Your touch, offered to me in Your courts.
**So what do I do with these posts, you ask, other than just read them? First, if you haven’t yet, read: Why I Adore to give you a context for this little space on my blog. (This post also gives context.)
If you are compelled, I invite you to participate. Set up a space and time in your own life to begin adoring. Over laundry or dinner dishes, on your commute to work, or in the wee morning hours — ten minutes is a great start. You can use the verse I list here every day or two as a launch pad for your own adoration.
Then practice praise.
Add to my adoration here, by posting a comment with your own words back to God about God …or hide it in your heart.
I promise your weary soul won’t regret it.
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Additionally, all of the Morning Chai Posts can be seen, in the order of posting, by clicking here or adding this address to your reader: http://EveryBitterThingisSweet.com/posts/chai
