Psalm 27:4 Sacred Spaces

Psalm 27:4

One thing have I desired of the Lord,  O, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his Temple.

I love how the writer here isn't hoping to someday live in God's presence.  He wants it "all the days of my life".  He finds that "beauty" in the house of the Lord, the temple.

We are capable of creating "holy spaces", places where we feel the Spirit of the Lord.  At some level every human longs for "heaven" - to be able to live without all the heartaches of life, to be surrounded by goodness and beauty, to commune with God. That vision seems to be in our spiritual DNA because it is universal, seen in the teachings of all religions.  

The following article in the Deseret News offers some insights.  I have highlighted a couple things he says but you can read the full article here:  How Our Sacred Spaces Shape Us by Boyd Matheson

"It is a mistake to think that awe and reverence, inducing that from sacred spaces, belong only to a particular group or religion. I have experienced similar awe and reverence in a Shinto shrine, a mighty cathedral, a Buddhist temple and an old wooden chapel. I have experienced sacred space at ground zero after 9/11 or standing at the Washington Monument surrounded by flags humbly bowed to half-staff after a tragic shooting in Las Vegas. A battlefield at Gettysburg and a beach in Normandy show that sites of division and death can be transformed into sacred space shared by people around the world.
I have always loved Winston Churchill’s statement: “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” I would tweak that to extend it slightly: We shape our sacred spaces, and afterwards our sacred spaces shape us.

There are a number of reasons why sacred spaces can shape us in significant ways. When we enter a sacred space, times seems to slow, the decibels drop and our thoughts are elevated.

Sacred space can provide the stillness of awe, wonder and gratitude or the transformational moment of inspiration, insight or a connection to the divine."

I find myself needing that "stillness of awe, wonder and gratitude" more and more as life has become so busy.  I find it at the temple and I find it in my morning meditation as I set time aside to "be with the Lord."  

I don't think it matters so much WHERE we find it - but that we DO find it.