Sights and Insights
Devotion for Dec. 1, 2020
The people of Israel began their journey from Mount Sinai.They traveled three days, and the Levites who carried the sacred chest led the way, so the Lord could show them where to camp. And the cloud always stayed with them. Each day as the Israelites began their journey, Moses would pray, “Our Lord, defeat your enemies and make them run!” And when they stopped to set up camp, he would pray, “Our Lord, stay close to Israel’s thousands and thousands of people.” – Numbers 10:33-36 (CEV)
This past week I managed to put artwork on the walls of my office in the church building, and am now finishing up getting my filing system set up. These are not exactly exciting, headline-worthy accomplishments, and yet they are meaningful steps for me. They are things that I very much want and need to have in place, but also that I don’t want to think about again for quite some time. They are the support structures that enable me to feel settled, organized, and inspired for the work of ministry, but they are not things that I want to be putting conscious mental time and energy into. They are to be things in the background that make the daily work feel comfortable. At the same time, things like art on the walls and a filing system that makes sense to me are expressions of who I am and how I want to approach each day. The environment that we surround ourselves with does have an effect on what we do. So, while it is not really newsworthy that I did these background things this week, it does matter because it shapes what I do going forward.
The support structures that we have for our days have a spiritual impact on our lives. For instance, having a regular routine to our days helps us to build up habits like regular prayer. Having a comfortable space and a regular time for prayer makes it more likely that prayer will be a regular and more meaningful part of your day. Of course, you don’t want it to be too comfortable (there can be a fine line between meditation and a nap!), but trying to pray in a space where you are uncomfortable or there are too many distractions can feel unfulfilling and unfruitful. It is not that God needs us to have a sacred space in order to hear our prayers, but rather we need to send our bodies signals in order to let go of the distractions of the day long enough to get re-centered and settle into God’s presence, if even for a moment. Everyone is a little bit different in what kinds of spaces and organization they need to have that sense of comfort, but taking the time to put those structures into place is time well spent. This is all the more true as our schedules are disrupted by needing to stay at home and work from home. As we must do things differently than we are used to, having some sort of routine time and space becomes all the more worthwhile.
In the passage from Numbers 10, the people of Israel are just setting out from Mt. Sinai toward the Promised Land. Moses has returned from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments, which are then placed in the Ark of the Covenant, and the people are once again on the move. Because they are constantly traveling from place to place, though, they need a sense of rhythm and continuity to help them remain aware of God’s presence, even though the cloud that signaled that God was with them was always overhead. They still needed the structure of a regular prayer to start the day and to end the day. It was not an elaborate ritual, but it gave them enough of a sense of familiarity in an otherwise upended time of continual travel. While they are constantly on the move and we are disrupted by more and more time at home, these rituals remain important for us in seeing God present with us each day.