Where do you Dwell?

In my growing up years, my family moved twice.  I was born and raised in Southern California outside of Los Angeles until my first month of seventh grade, then my dad was transferred in his job, and before I knew it we were living in Connecticut.  We lived there for about a year and a half, and then my dad was transferred in his job again to Fort Worth, Texas, and that, to this day, still feels like home.

I have been gone from Texas for quite a while now, but much of my life there has never left me. I loved the city and the rhythm of the hustle and bustle, and almost as much, I loved being out in the countryside.  Where I lived in that area, you could have both.  It was a matter of minutes before you were out of the city and its skyscrapers and into the grassy meadows with trees and cows—the best of both worlds.

But it was more than that.  In all those years that I lived in Fort Worth, it was the culture that became a part of me—the manners and mannerisms, the friendliness, the kindnesses and the good faith amongst the people that I encountered.  It was a different way of life, and though I live quite a distance from there now, my heart in many ways still dwells there and those things are still a part of me wherever I go.

In Psalm 91, the psalmist talks about where we dwell.  Though “dwell” can mean a place where you live physically, it can also mean the condition or state of being in which you live.  In verse 1, the psalmist declares, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most Highwill rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” And in verses 9 and 10, “If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’and you make the Most High your dwelling,no harm will overtake you,no disaster will come near your tent.”

Where do our hearts dwell?  Where do they abide?  Where do they find rest and refuge?  Is it in a state of loneliness, depression, or isolation?  Is it in quiet sin–unforgiveness, anger, retribution?  Or perhaps imprisonment, fettered by shame and regret?

Today, ask of your heart, your mind, and all that is within you…Where do I dwell?  Where do I find my rest?  Let it be in the Lord.  Please, please read Psalm 91 today, and find out what promises await those who find their dwelling in the Lord.

–Katie Botello