Sometimes you have to mark the moment.
I never thought I’d find myself in a situation where I would be unpacking the boxes I found myself packing a few days before. The by-product of a whirlwind “I’m moving/not moving” scenario that has unfolded in the last two weeks. It’s a good thing I was lazy and didn’t get too far, right? But nonetheless, I find myself unpacking and putting things back where they belong but also dreaming up new ways of looking at my living space and my collection of bits and pieces.
Somewhere in the mix are a couple of bags of stones that will eventually make their way back to a vase in my room. One might wonder why I keep lugging around bags of rocks to each new home, but they are much more than just modern decoration.
These rocks are my altars.
Or as my Grandma P would say – my Ebenezers. And they are – literally that. I decided to follow the lead of my bro Abraham, collecting them as a way of marking conversations with the Lord. Significant moments. Times of wrestling. Many of them are specifically from a long season of unemployment I had just after graduating college, when I would walk down to the beach by my parents house and wrestle it all out before the Lord. I said many things during those conversations with Him but they usually went a little like the lines so perfectly written by JJ Heller…
I am tryin’ to understand
how to walk this weary land
make straight the paths that crooked lie
Oh Lord before these feet of mine
Oh Lord before these feet of mine
And He would remind me that…
When my world is shaking
Heaven stands.
When my heart is breaking
I never leave [His} hands.
And for all the wrestling and questions – he would ultimately lead me by the hand to rest. To trust.
So as I daily pass my stack of altars, holding one in my hand. Feeling the smoothness round and round – I’m reminded to selah. Be Still.
*altar not alter
Great article, though!
Thanks for catching that – if there is not a squiggly red line, I usually just blow by it!