Tending to My Relationship with God
This is from my SOAP journal this morning:
Scripture
“We will not neglect the house of our God.”
Nehemiah 10:39b (NIV)
Observation
I am amazed this morning at the Levite’s prayer in Nehemiah 9. It’s has a powerful pattern of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication (ACTS). The depth of their repentance is profound. They own their sins and the sins of the forefathers and mothers. Their resolve to align their lives around the ways of Yahweh is noteworthy and exemplary. Nehemiah 10 continues with the list of those who sealed the covenant with their names followed by a detailed promise to honor their covenant as a people of God. The last line of Nehemiah 10 is a shout. “We will not neglect the house of our God.” It’s a summary statement. The people sum up all that they will do and not do by declaring boldly their corporate and individual commitment to not abandon or forsake the Temple. It’s important to remember that for the Jews, the actual presence of God lived in the Holy of Holies. Neglecting “the house of our God” was more than not having a manicured front lawn or leaky roof. This is not a statement simply about edifice care. It’s a deeper, more spiritual commitment. God’s people in this moment are standing in solidarity saying that they refuse to leave their relationship with God untended. This is their solemn vow. And as Howard used to say, “We do not make vows. Vows make us.”
Application
Yesterday in my 5-1-2 journaling, under the question “What is bothering me?,” I wrote, “I have allowed the busy-ness of the past month to wreck my rhythms of formation, exercise and eating. My apprentice training slips when I either travel or crisis happens. Is there a way for these kinds of interruptions to spur going “further in and further up”?” This unhealthy pattern emerges far too often in my pilgrimage with Jesus. The very thing that is given by God to sustain me gets neglected. I neglect the house of my God. Yesterday, I also read an article by Dallas Willard on spiritual formation where he wrote, “Yet it is today necessary to assert boldly and often that becoming Christlike never occurs without intense and well-informed action on our part.” This impulse in me seems to falter when I allow the tyranny of the urgent to hijack my formation. In reflecting on the week that was Hurricane Milton, the irony is that I had more time for tending to relationship with God not less! Yet, I spent an inordinate amount of time glued to a TV set watching countless hurricane model plots tracking the potential landfall of Milton. I listened to Matt Devitt from WINK News making predictions about weather patterns more than the Holy Spirit who controls the weather patterns. I have a similar unhealthy routine when I travel from home for work or pleasure. I too quickly discard and leave undone the very things that sustain my connection to the Vine. This is my situational sin of omission. Today, I declare with the saints of Nehemiah’s time, “We will not neglect the house of our God.”
Prayer
Lord, this tendency in me has bothered me for far too long. I confess that I have made excuses for neglecting the very gifts of grace you have given the people of God to stay connected to you especially during seasons of crisis and times of travel. Ironically, in my gratitude list this morning, I thanked you for meeting me in my morning times with you when I penned, “The wilderness (eremos) is my home. It is the space and place for me to hear from God and be with God. I am thankful for this grace.” Keep this at the forefront of my mind and center of my heart regardless of my circumstances. I will not neglect the house of my God. Amen.