Delighting in His Surroundings

Psalm 84:1 How lovely is Your tabernacle (are Your dwellings), O Lord of Hosts.

Preference
Each of us has certain accouterments that please us. One likes a flowered field, another likes soft cello music, another likes Victorian furniture, another likes cinnamon tea, another likes the smell of automobile leather interior, and another thrives on word puzzles. Each of us has preferences that please our nose, our eyes, our ears, our touch, our taste, and our mental processes. Surrounded by those preferences, we would be ecstatically stimulated and express a sheer delight in living. Overstimulation would ensue and breakdown of emotion would follow. None of us get the privilege of living 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the pure preferences of our life. None of us would survive long in it either.

Persistence
Life imposes certain environs to which we become accustomed. Waking early in the morning to be at his place in the market is required of the businessman. Gathering the sounds of many little children on a school playground adjacent to her home teases the patience of one retired widow. Inhaling the morning stench of the stockyards becomes the daily routine of a cattleman. For each of these, the choice is to persist in what may not seem pleasant for the moment in order to achieve some joy. To rise early is to profit quickly for the businessman. That is his focus and life and purpose. To live in the neighborhood where life was lived out makes the somewhat irritating noises meaningless to the widow and her memories. The stench of cattle is a sweet aroma as the cattleman counts his gains in the trading of the day. The impositions of life can be easily assumed in stride when we move toward our life's purpose and the joy of our heart.
Thomas Edison was always one for changing his world. At his summer home, he delighted in showing guests labor saving devices throughout the property. Following the path back to the gathering, each guest was required to push through a tough turnstile. With such propensity for saving labor, one guest was perplexed and asked why such a hard turning device was necessary. "Everyone who pushes the turnstile around pumps eight gallons of water into the tank on my roof," was Edison's smiling reply. He then used the tank to water his garden.

Choices
Whatever the surroundings have become, they are the product of the accumulation of our daily choices. While we take pleasure in trying to lay the blame at the feet of destiny or life, any of us with the smallest abilities can change our environment a moment and a facet at a time into something entirely different. Some choose to deny the realities of choice and responsibility and create worlds of their imaginations. Even at that, they have mentally created a new environ of choice. Others choose to carve out worlds that did not exist before them like Thomas Edison bent on pursing a land of light and electricity. For him it existed at first only in his mind and now for us exists as a given condition.

New Crib
After a few weeks of opening XiRo at 5:30am for coffee for the neighborhood, Krons was getting weary. Maria picked up at 8am so he could make it to work on time. But the early time was busy. People came and took advantage of the first week of free coffee and loved the low prices. Getting a cup on the way to work seemed to be attracting some regulars already. Jerry always came by in the evening before closing to clean up and lock up and get everyone home. Sometimes an uncooperative crowd would entrench and not want to leave. It was good to have Jerry. Bear was coming by every night. Maybe he could take a few evenings on his own and let Krons and Maria have some nights off. Yet, he was so full of questions and conversation. It did not seem right to leave him for now, but what would one night hurt?
It sure was good to be Friday. Weekends were closed right now. More willing saints were needed to make this work.

The owner from the bar next door popped in unexpectedly. He was good about doing that. Sometimes he was downright irritating in the way he sauntered around as if he owned the place. He did own the building, but it would be good to have a landlord not so close and inquisitive. He always expected a free cup of coffee along with his rent.

“Hey, Krons, got some of that mud for me? You owe me. People are taking up bar parking and sitting around in here all night. That sure doesn’t help me make money on my brew. Watcha gonna do about it? Huh? Make me an offer.”

Krons struggled to answer. This was frustrating. This guy was getting on his nerves. Maybe this was a good time to do a little witnessing. Maybe he would go away.

“Look, Jack. You knew when we rented we would be talking to folks and giving them a rest stop. Only about half are driving. Most of the ones that hang around walk up. The drivers only stay for 15 minutes or so. Anyway, haven’t you wondered what we are talking about with people?”

“I know what you are talking about. You are filling their heads with that Jesus stuff. So far most still come by for a beer after they leave. It really has increased my walk in traffic at the bar. Maybe this Jesus stuff is good for my business. Sold a lot a sandwiches last week. Must get them hungry listening about all that baloney.”

“What about you, Jack? What do you think about Jesus?”, Krons struck to the heart of the matter.

“Think about Jesus? I don’t ever think about Jesus. Wasn’t he some guy who got in trouble with the law so they strung him up? I know lots of folks strung up by the law in jail. Maybe he is my kinda guy.”

Krons laughed. This was a good diversion. Jack could sure banter. The conversation did not seem to go anywhere, but Krons enjoyed the back and forth talk. Over in the corner, Bear was listening to every word between the two. Krons was tired. He wanted to be home. Something made him come and do this thing at XiRo. It sure wasn’t comfort. But it needed to be done.

Environs of God
Have you ever thought what the environs of God's choices are like? You would love to live there, wouldn't you? Or would you?

Choosing the surroundings of God means leaving the surroundings of our accumulated choices. It is no neverland of Captain Hook and Peter Pan in which He lives, but a real dwelling place to which He invites us. The choice is to overcome the impositions of life and carve out a world that for some exists as joy unspeakable and full of glory and for others is only a haunting dream. Dreams come true when lived out with choices actively expressed.

We can choose to live in the lovely dwellings of God. We can choose and act to inhabit with Him, His environs. The trappings of His gathering can be ours. But we must love them. We must desire them. We must overcome the pleasured choices we have made and take on new ones. Our minds must be renewed into His mind, and our inner man must take on His image.

The funny part about this whole journey of delighting in the dwelling of God is that when we enter His dwelling, we become a part of the environ. We become a choice of God for His pleasure. We become a part of His persistent will to create a new heaven and a new earth. He chooses us as part of His lovely tabernacle, the dwelling place of His Holy Spirit.

Taking Inventory on Delighting In His Surroundings
Are you resisting His surroundings?

What part of your surroundings would you have to give up to spend more time in His?

Is there a part of your life's environs conflicting with the environs of God?

Taking Action on Delighting In His Surroundings
While the physical house of God, a church building, is only a part of God's environs, it is an important part. Take time this week to break your schedule for His. Go up to the physical house of God and actively take on a short project. Clean a room, cut some grass, wash a row of windows, fix a broken hinge, and put your hands on His gathering. While you are there, remember you are in His environs at His invitation. He chose you.

Prayer on Delighting In His Surroundings
God of the living give me a holy delight in Your surroundings. Dwell in me that I might dwell in You. Create in me a heart of holy dissatisfaction to be anywhere but in Your presence, Your surroundings, Your dwelling place, and Your environs. Show me choices that lead me closer into Your light and life 24 hours a day. Engulf me, Lord, with You.