MY SIMPLE LIFE

          If I make a confession to you, will you promise not to judge me or peg me forever as arrogant? Here is the confession: when I was still in law school and thinking about the future, my friend Scott and I sat on the bridge spanning the two wings of our law school, where we sat nearly every lunch break. Scott was a year ahead of me and was contemplating his imminent graduation. The conversation led to the usual tortuous questions for graduates. What are you going to do? What do you want to do? What will you settle to do? Not wanting to be the only one in the hot seat, he asked me the same questions. My response was a faltering and embarrassed: “I don’t know. Sometimes, I think I am destined...” and I hesitated. Then, not waiting for me to finish my sentence, he looked straight at me, in that “I feel the same way” way, and said “yes, greatness. I think the same thing.” I was shocked that someone else could feel this sense of destiny. Suddenly, I was not so embarrassed to think I might be destined for greatness. (But it is embarrassing to think how arrogant it sounds...ah well. I think you promised not to judge me.)

  

              I don’t know what I was thinking of, or what Scott was thinking of, when we both blurted out “greatness.” Maybe it was a political life. Maybe it was some sort of high profile job. Maybe it was doing something outrageously brave and risky. Maye it was sitting on the Supreme Court. I really don’t know because once it was revealed to me that we both felt that calling to undefined greatness, and the earth did not swallow us up whole, and a lightning bolt from heaven did not strike us down, there was a sense of relief as well as excitement…maybe I wasn’t so crazy.

            That was more than 30 years ago, and as I read Psalm 37:1-19 today, I realize my goals and my life are much simpler now.  Or maybe my definition of greatness has changed.

            As I read those first 19 verses of Psalm 37 this morning, I realized there were very simple instructions to me:            

• ·         Trust in the Lord
• ·         Do good
• ·         Dwell in the land
• ·         Enjoy safe pasture
• ·         Delight yourself in the Lord
• ·         Commit your way to the Lord
• ·         Be still before the Lord
• ·         Do not fret
• ·         Refrain from anger

        Not one of those instructions has to do with wealth, success in terms of achievement, notoriety, material accumulation or power. In fact, these instructions all point to a fairly simple, relationship oriented life. My relationship with the Lord: trust Him, be still before Him, delight in Him, do good, commit my way to Him. My relationship with people around me: do good, refrain from anger. My relationship with myself: do good, dwell in the land, enjoy safe pasture, do not fret. All of those things are things I can control. I can choose not to fret, to commit my way to the Lord, to be still, to trust in the Lord, to refrain from anger. And frankly, if I have done these things, have I not succeeded in life already? That sounds like a great life to me.

And, if I can live this deceptively simple, but not simplistic, life, here is what I can look to the Lord to do:

• ·         He will give me the desires of my heart
• ·         He will make my righteousness shine like the dawn
• ·         He will make the justice of my cause like the noonday sun;
• ·         I will inherit the land
• ·         I will enjoy great peace.

I can leave the results up to God. I can cease striving.

When I was sitting on the bridge, it was in a period of my life which was marked by striving: striving for grades, for class rank, for jobs, for position. It really was a paradigm of what came next: striving for the next job, the right house, the next promotion, for children and their schools, the right college for them, the right opportunities for them.  And to be blunt, all those things, are not wrong; they just became the objectives, the goals. Those things are not my destiny. 

My destiny is knowing God. My truest greatness is to know God, to be known by Him, and to make Him known. It sounds like a simple life but, honestly, if that life is simple, so be it. It looks like success to me.

Building A Place for God

            What if you were assigned the task of building a place for God? How would you go about that rather large job?  I would probably go about it as Moses did. 

            First, he gathered resources and workers. Exodus 35:4-29 describes an incredible ingathering of resources. The best was brought: gold, silver, goat hair, hides of sea cows, acacia wood, olive oil, onyx stones and gems. Like any good contractor, Moses kept good records and retained a tally of all the materials used. (Ex 38:21-30)

            Moses even did a little inventory of the bigger picture items: the tabernacle, the ark, the table, the lampstand, the curtain, the bronze basin, right down to the things inside the closet…sacred garments for those ministering to the Lord. Once that list was given, the people started to come with their offerings, “all…who were willing brought to the Lord freewill offerings for all the work the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do.” In fact, the people of Israel got so excited about being part of the building of the sanctuary, being part of something bigger than themselves, they continued to bring free will offerings until they actually had to be restrained from bringing more. It would be a pastor’s dream: imagine a pastor saying to his congregation, “stop already. No more offerings. We have more than enough to complete the work God has given us to do.” Yet, that is exactly what Moses had to do. (Ex 36:6,7)

            Of course, a building is more than a pile of resources and materials. Moses had to find the right skilled craftsmen, designers and embroiderers to actually do the work God had commanded. The Lord provided Bezalel who was filled “with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts.” Bezalel picked his crew, trained them  and they oversaw “every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to do the work.”  (Ex 35:30-36:1)

            The actual building, crafting, embroidering, goldsmithing, and silversmithing is described in the next 3 chapters. It is a wonderful testimony of God’s people doing what they were created to do, fulfilling their purposes. So all the work on the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded.

            And thus, like a good general contractor, who was given a blueprint, a master plan, “Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them. “ (Ex 39:42, 43) 

The phrase “as the Lord commanded him” is repeated countless times in Exodus, whether it is with regard to Moses traveling up Mount Sinai early in the morning to receive the new stone tablets, or relaying the commands of the Lord to Pharaoh, or building the sanctuary.

 In the last chapter of Exodus, the phrase is repeated eight times as Moses is instructed by the very voice of God to set up the tabernacle, put the altar in its place, dress Aaron in the sacred garments, place the Testimony in the Ark, the lampstands, basin and gold alter in their proper places. Moses did everything down to the last detail as the Lord commanded him. “And so Moses finished the work.” Then what? Did he walk backwards, put his thumb up to see if everything was plumb? Did he sit back and enjoy the view? Did he gather his people around so they all could admire the work? Was that the end of the story? Tabernacle finished; mission accomplished? Actually, no.

            “Then (what a glorious “then”) “the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”  (Ex 40:34) The account tells us that Moses could not even enter the sanctuary he had built, as the Lord commanded, because the glory of the Lord filled the sanctuary.

            The planning, as the Lord commanded, the ingathering of resources, as the Lord commanded, the building by those who were willing and skilled, as the Lord commanded, and the setting up of the sanctuary, as the Lord commanded is not just simply for the purpose of finishing the work for the work’s sake. It is to build a place for the glory of the Lord to fill. When that happens, when the glory of God comes and fills the place we create as He commands, somehow, it doesn’t matter that there is no room for us. In fact, I think that is the point…as the Lord commands.