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One Thing

             One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. (Psalm 27: 4)

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. (Ephesians 4:7)

At the end of the last calendar year, I set Ephesians 4:7 as this year’s verse, along with the notion of double blessing. And since I found it mentioned in my garden journal, I clearly meant it in terms of my garden first, and everything else second or later. This morning, I’m playing with numbers again. First, the purely amusing. David says “one thing” and “this only” then goes on to say, “dwell in the house of the Lord…,” “gaze on the beauty of the Lord,” and “seek him in his temple.” I count that as three things. If it’s one, it’s compound or complex, like a three ingredient recipe in which one of the ingredients is a box of cake or cookie mix containing flour, sugar, powdered milk, flavorings, etc.

But as I think about my rule of life (and I haven’t yet) and the day, one of the things that comes to mind is what life would be like if I did focused on that one thing instead of the many things I seem to seek. I’m not saying the other things are bad. I’m just thinking about what life would be like if I gave God the priority He deserves, or if I considered His beauty. I suspect His beauty is such to make the many wonderful things I’ve seen seem like garbage dumps in comparison.

Interestingly enough, after I started thinking about this I went to church, and the pastor’s sermon dealt with what our lives would look like if we lived according to Ephesians 1:1-2, holy, faithful, and in grace and peace. What would our lives look like if we lived what we claim we believe?

And that leads back to the idea I’ve been exploring about a rule of life, which I have yet to officially establish but which I think is part of the whole process that led me to decide to stop being a snowbird.

So, to bring it home to all of us, what one thing (simple or complex) could you do to begin to live (within your current circumstances) more in accordance with your beliefs? What could you do to seek God’s beauty?

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