You will seek the Lord your God from there, and you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your being. – Deuteronomy 4:29-30 (CEB)
It is track season, and that means that each school day around 4:15 I need to be parked in the same spot just outside the stadium at the high school, ready to pick Cade up after practice. It is our go-to spot whenever he has practice. It is easier to always use the same place rather than have a daily text chain of “Where are you?” “I’m in the parking lot six rows up and about 30 spots to the right if you are exiting the stadium from the exit near the flagpole.” That doesn’t actually describe our meeting spot, but at first we had a few texts like that back and forth. Eventually, though, we found a spot that we knew we could count on meeting up. Now we don’t even need to plan ahead, we just know where the spot is and both head there when it is time for pickup.
Do you have that kind of designated meeting spot with somebody? A place that you both know to go to when it is time to get together? A place you trust you will find each other? Even more, do you have such a meeting place for God? Perhaps it is not a physical place, but do you have a particular time and activity that you just know is where you go when you need to encounter God? Certainly the church sanctuary can be such a place for some. Activities like prayer and meditation can work for others. Singing hymns, particularly ones that are deeply personally meaningful to you, can work that way as well.
For the class I’m teaching through Australian Lutheran College, the classroom time was all at once while I was in Australia earlier in the year. Yet the assignments for the class are spread throughout the fall. This past weekend one of the major assignments was due: what authority does scripture have? The assignments quote various theologians and theories, as a higher education assignment submission should do. Ultimately, though, the answer that I look for is quite simple. The bible is a meeting place for God. It does not mean it is the only possible place to meet God, but as Christians it is one the one that is pre-established and we know we can rely upon. There is a long history of being met by God through the words of the bible, and so we can expect that when we turn to its pages we will be met by God again. One need not ascribe particular supernatural powers to the words of the page; rather they are a tried and true location where we know that God shows up for us when we go there. We do not need to make elaborate plans; simply go where we have always gone and trust that God will show up there yet again. No need to even plan ahead, just go there and trust that God will show up too.