Today’s
Scripture Reading (May 14, 2016): Psalm 143
What is heaven? Our answers to that simple question
seem to be so varied, probably because none of us have ever experienced the
place. There is simply no empirical study that can be commissioned, no spies that can be sent into that foreign
territory to bring us back the definitive answer. And so, some of us believe in
a heaven, and some don’t. At several times in my life, I have to admit that I have been absolutely terrified by the
idea of heaven. When I was younger, preachers made heaven sound like Sunday at
a Camp Meeting. I always hated Sunday at Camp. Back when I was growing up
Sunday meant I had to attend three church services and every one of them seemed
to go a lot longer than was truly necessary. And if you could scam a few
minutes between the services for something worthwhile (like play), all of the
worthy activities were on the banned list. I remember sneaking off with some
older kids with vehicles to the local town near the camp just so that we could
have the opportunity to play some Sunday afternoon football – an activity that
was banned at the camp because Sunday was “the day of rest.” If this was
heaven, then, really, why bother? I mean, I don’t want to go to hell, but is it
possible there is a third option - like
just let me sleep.
When I was a little older I had a friend who was
convinced that heaven was a place where all of our pleasure pursuits were
available – forever. If you like to boat, there would be this great lake and
you would have the boat that you need to take advantage of it. If golf was your
thing, there were going to be some of the best golf courses available for you
to play. For my friend, golf was his thing. And, as we played, he would hit a
shot that sliced into the trees, or muffed a shot that headed for the sand
bunker instead of the green, and he was sure that in heaven he would be a much
better golfer and that those shots just wouldn’t happen. But I have to admit
that that didn’t sound much better to me than the Camp Meeting version of
heaven. Maybe I am just too competitive, but there is a sweet feeling when you
get that golf shot right, or when you hit that basketball three-pointer perfectly connecting with nothing
but net, or when you throw that perfect spiral through the hands of a defender
into the arms of your receiver for the winning touchdown. If every shot or
throw was perfect, wouldn’t you lose that feeling? I can imagine coming home
from a golf game with your significant other asking the question – so, how did
you do? And the answer is that you shot an amazing twenty under par – just as
you did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. And to me, that sounds – boring.
As with many of the Psalms, it appears that this Psalm
of David was written during the time of Absalom’s rebellion against his father.
And probably, in this moment, David is dreaming of a boring heaven that he can
walk into, one without intrigue and adventure. For this moment in time, he has
had enough of all of that – he just needs some rest and uninterrupted sleep.
And so he prays that God would lead him onto level ground. But I can’t believe
that the David I read about in the Bible would have been happy with that for
long. He would need some sort of challenge in order to move into the future.
For the moment, he needs peace. Just like every summer I enjoy my week or two
on the beach. But I think David needs more than just an existence on a level
plain. I know that I do.
This verse presents us with two childlike requests.
Teach me, so that I can do things right. And lead me, so that I can work in the
proper direction. A child might ask for the obstacles to be removed, but in the end, he/she will be much stronger if
they have to fight through them in the proper direction. I don’t think that
this is a prayer asking God for all of the answers, but it is a request to be
put on the right path toward accomplishing something that is important. In the
Absalom conflict, David had been sidetracked, but now it was time to get back
to work.
I sincerely hope that heaven is structured in a
similar way. My prayer is not for a heaven where all of the obstacles have been
removed, but rather a heaven which exists on the level plain, and maybe for the
first time in our lives, we can clearly
set ourselves toward accomplishing the things that are really important.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Psalm 144
No comments:
Post a Comment