Coffee With The Lord

Ever been homesick?  People may grin, chuckle a bit, and give one another that “raised eyebrow look” at the idea of being homesick… but being “homesick” is real!  For several years I served as dean of students at a university and every semester I had a few students that were actually “ill” with “homesickness!”  Call it whatever you want to… heightened nostalgia, relational dependence or deprivation (I am sure my counsellor friends have a technical name for it) but being “homesick” is real!

I think there is a sense in which some form of “homesickness” is what King David might have experienced alone in the wildness of Judah, when he was deprived of the presence of God he sensed when he went to God’s house.  Here is what he said about in in Psalm 63…

“O God, you are my God! I long for you! My soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you, as in a dry and parched land where there is no water.  Yes, in the sanctuary I have seen you, and witnessed your power and splendor!  Because experiencing your loyal love is better than life itself, my lips will praise you!  For this reason I will praise you while I live!  In your name I will lift up my hands!  As if with choice meat you satisfy my soul!  My mouth joyfully praises you, whenever I remember you on my bed, and think about you during the nighttime hours.  For you are my deliverer; under your wings I rejoice.  My soul pursues you!  Your right hand upholds me” (Traditional title: A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness.  From Psalm 63:1-8)

Anyone who has ever experienced and known the wonderful presence of God in their life, and then gone through a dry spell (either because of spiritual drift, sin or just “a season” in their spiritual journey) will identify with David’s expression of “spiritual homesickness!”  My advice?  If sin has caused you to feel the loss of His presence, acknowledge it to Him and ask for His forgiveness.  If it spiritual drift, and you, like the prodigal, feel like you’re in a distant land gnawing on the empty, dirty husks of this world, why not humble yourself, head “home” and ask the “Heavenly Father” to receive you (He will, you know)!  And if it’s just “a season” that we sometimes go through as “spiritual pilgrims,” my advice is to press through it and make the words of this Psalm your personal, passionate expression to a Living God, whose “steadfast love” is incredible and real!  

Metamorphosis … the miracle of transformation that takes place when a caterpillar goes through a process (a metamorphosis) and becomes a beautiful butterfly (see the pic).

Was reminded of that miraculous process as I read 2 Corinthians 3:18 this morning during “coffee with the Lord!”

We, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed (the Greek word is interestingly enough METAMORPHOO/METAMORPHOUMETHA – transliterated) into the same image (Christ’s likeness) from one degree of glory to another.  This comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (a transformation worked from within us by the Holy Spirit).

Wow!  I’d say that miracle eclipses the wonder of what even happens when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly!  In this case sinners become saints – Christ-rejecters become Christlike!  It doesn’t happen all at once – just like the metamorphosis of the butterfly, it’s a process.  Becoming Christlike isn’t necessarily easy either – there’s some pain and transforming pressure that takes place.  It’s an inside – out thing… death to self – alive to Christ!  Now we’re in process… we’re becoming!  But one day we shall be like Him!  Praise the Lord!

How did the old worship song put it?

“From glory to glory He’s changing me,

Changing me, changing me;

His likeness and image to perfect in me,

The love of God shown to the world.

For He’s changing, changing me!

From earthly things to the heavenly!

His likeness and image to perfect in me,

The love of God shown to the world!”

It’s been a tragic week in our country… Riots in our cities, tragic loss of life, inflammatory rhetoric, tense court cases, crisis at our borders, and other events in our nation (some of which we may not even be aware of).  As painful and tragic as these events are, perhaps God is using them to call His people to put 2 Chronicles 7:14 into practice!

“If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.”

My Bible reading this morning included Psalm 60 which seemed appropriate in light of what has transpired in the past weeks and months.  Let the truth of it grip your heart as it did mine this morning and see if you don’t find its message appropriate and challenging…

^“God! you walked off and left us, kicked our defenses to bits and stalked off angry. Come back. Oh please, come back!  You shook earth to the foundations, ripped open huge crevasses. Heal the breaks! Everything’s coming apart at the seams.  You made your people look doom in the face, then gave us cheap wine to drown our troubles.  Then you planted a flag to rally your people, an unfurled flag to look to for courage.  Now do something quickly, answer right now, so the ones you love best are saved… You aren’t giving up on us, are you, God? …  Give us help for the hard task; human help is worthless.   In God we’ll do our very best; he’ll flatten the opposition for good.” (from Psalm 60 The Message paraphrase)

One thing for sure… I don’t want this nation that I love to fit the description God gave of Judah in Jeremiah 22.21: He said, “I warned you when you felt secure, but you said, ‘I will not listen!’  This has been your way from your youth; you have not obeyed me!”

“You aren’t giving up on us, are you God?  Give us help… human help is worthless!”